Estimated read: 6 minutes
People ask me what kind of minister I am, and my answer usually surprises them.
Two words live at the heart of my ministry. Interfaith and interspiritual. They sound alike, and they hold hands, but they are not quite the same. This is how I explain the two.
Interfaith: the space between
Interfaith is about the space between traditions. It honors the distinct beliefs, practices, and cultures of each one while seeking the common ground beneath them all. It says: your path is valid, and so is mine, and we are stronger for knowing each other.
Interspiritual: the heart within
Interspirituality is a word I first learned in seminary. It was coined by Brother Wayne Teasdale, who wrote about it in The Mystic Heart (Teasdale, 1999). It points to the mystical core that lives at the heart of every tradition. The inner experience. The shared silence beneath the different prayers. The place where a Buddhist monk, a Jewish mystic, a Sufi poet, and a Christian contemplative would all recognize each other.
The thread
I was ordained at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City, part of One Spirit Learning Alliance. One Spirit speaks of a thread that runs through all things. Every tradition, every prayer, every seeker, woven together by the same sacred thread.
I have been curious about religion and spirituality for as far back as I can remember. I was born and raised into a faith that never fit quite right. I always had a deep knowing, a deep connection with something bigger than myself, but the beliefs I was born into did not match up. The very first book I bought on the subject was Religion for Dummies, because when I had children, I was not sure which way I wanted to raise them.
My path led me to One Spirit, and I said yes to the calling.
What I saw at the bedside
Before seminary, when I was a bedside nurse, I sat with people at the end of their lives, and I noticed something I have never forgotten.
This is my own observation, not a study. But the people who had faith seemed to carry something with them. Hope. A kind of peace. The comfort of knowing they were held by something greater. The people who did not often seemed frightened, or angry, and without that comfort to lean on.
I do not share this to say one person was right and another was wrong. I share it because it changed me. It showed me that caring for the body is only part of caring for a person.
Mind, body, and spirit
When I committed to One Spirit and to ministry, I was saying yes to caring for the whole person. And medicine, slowly, has been moving there too.
In 1977, the psychiatrist George Engel argued that medicine needed to see the psychological and social sides of illness, not only the biological (Engel, 1977). Later, the physician Daniel Sulmasy added the missing piece and described a biopsychosocial spiritual model, one that makes room for the spirit in patient care (Sulmasy, 2002).
A national consensus conference on palliative care named spirituality as a core part of quality care and encouraged clinicians to ask about it (Puchalski et al., 2009). And a large review of the research found that religious and spiritual involvement is often linked with better coping, more hope, and better mental health (Koenig, 2012).
The research gave words to what I had already felt in those quiet rooms.
The minister I chose to be
I am an all inclusive minister. All faiths and religions are welcome here.
I am interfaith because I welcome every person from every tradition exactly as they are. I am interspiritual because my own beliefs are rooted in the one thread that runs through all of them.
My ministry is about acceptance, love, and ultimately freedom. Freedom to choose. Freedom to align with what feels true. Freedom to lean into what feels good and right for you.
Try one on
If you are curious, I made something for you. On the Believe path you will find the Ten Doorways, an interactive board of ten traditions and spiritual philosophies. Tap a door and it opens to a short story from my own practice and one small thing to try today. Loving kindness from Buddhism. Ho’oponopono from Hawaii. Earth based wisdom. And a door for anyone who wants no tradition at all.
There is no right answer. Only the one that feels like coming home.
All of you is welcome here, and every path is welcome.
This essay is part of the Believe Series on the Believe path at The Gracewell Studio. Start at the Believe path here, or keep reading: The Dance Between Everything: Where Science and the Sacred Meet.
A Blessing for the Whole of You
May every part of you be welcome here. May your body be cared for, your mind be quieted, and your spirit be seen. May you find the thread that ties your path to every other. Go gracefully. 🤍
About the Author
Rev. Kristina Soto, RN, BSN Registered Nurse · Quality Management · Interfaith Minister · Usui Ryoho Reiki Master · Founder, The Gracewell Studio
Kristina is a Registered Nurse with nearly two decades of clinical experience, including more than ten years in quality management and performance improvement, and now in case management. She is an ordained Interfaith Minister through One Spirit Learning Alliance, a Usui Ryoho Reiki Master, a Shamanic Reiki Practitioner, a NYC Marriage Officiant, and the founder of The Gracewell Studio, where artful living meets well-being. Read more about Kristina.
References
Engel, G. L. (1977). The need for a new medical model: A challenge for biomedicine. Science, 196(4286), 129-136. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.847460
Koenig, H. G. (2012). Religion, spirituality, and health: The research and clinical implications. ISRN Psychiatry, 2012, 278730. https://doi.org/10.5402/2012/278730
One Spirit Learning Alliance. (n.d.). One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. https://1spirit.org/one-spirit-seminary
Puchalski, C., Ferrell, B., Virani, R., Otis-Green, S., Baird, P., Bull, J., Chochinov, H., Handzo, G., Nelson-Becker, H., Prince-Paul, M., Pugliese, K., & Sulmasy, D. (2009). Improving the quality of spiritual care as a dimension of palliative care: The report of the Consensus Conference. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 12(10), 885-904. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2009.0142
Sulmasy, D. P. (2002). A biopsychosocial-spiritual model for the care of patients at the end of life. The Gerontologist, 42(Suppl. 3), 24-33. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/42.suppl_3.24
Teasdale, W. (1999). The mystic heart: Discovering a universal spirituality in the world’s religions. New World Library.
