The Spiritual Care Series is a comprehensive introduction to enabling people to offer good-quality spiritual care in their local communities. Jed Dunn completed the course earlier in the year and told our comms officer Eley McAinsh about his experience.
5 October 2025
The Spiritual Care Series
The Spiritual Care Series is one of the courses offered by BRF Ministries. Created by the Health Television Network in Australia, it features leading figures from the UK, including Professor John Swinton, vice-president of BRF Ministries. The course has become highly regarded in both the UK and Canada, as well as Australia. Participants frequently describe it as excellent, saying it is demanding but deeply rewarding – which, as we’ll see, is an assessment shared by Jed Dunn.
Jed is a busy man: a commissioned local minister, NHS hospital chaplain, member of a newly formed local pastoral care team and a publican. Describing himself as a ‘proper country boy’, Jed was born in rural Somerset at the beginning of the sixties and has now settled in rural Hereford. He grew up in the church and travelled widely in both a professional capacity as a chartered civil engineer and also with the organisation Second Aid.
Founded by Judy Fraser, Second Aid, which has since closed down, had a vision to ‘take light into the dark places of the world’. Whereas ‘first aid’ is for the body, Second Aid aimed to bring spiritual aid to people suffering from trauma. In the same way, while other agencies focus on physical healthcare, BRF Ministries, primarily through our Anna Chaplaincy ministry, aims to bring spiritual support to older people as they face the questions and challenges of the ageing process.
The best way I can describe it is that it’s as if I’m walking down a golden path.
Why the Spiritual Care Series?
Jed was in the first year of his training to become a commissioned local minister in Hereford diocese when he began to reflect on his own ministry. He says:
‘The training modules which focussed on pastoral care, mission and evangelism, genuinely spoke to me as I was trying to think through what my mission, my ministry, might look like. I do some services in church, and they’re lovely, but I was more and more drawn to pastoral care and to chaplaincy, as mission in the community.’
It so happened that a member of a local church, named Philippa, was training for ordination, and as part of her training she had to facilitate a course. She chose to run The Spiritual Care Series, offered in the UK by BRF Ministries. Jed ‘jumped at the opportunity to do the course’ and completed it this spring. Since then he’s become a founding member of the fledgling Leominster pastoral care team, started by the Revd Fiona Hunisett. Jed says:
‘For me personally, the absolute beauty of doing this work is just everything. The best way I can describe it is that it’s as if I’m walking down a golden path – even the bits you’re warned about very firmly on the course, like when somebody really doesn’t want to know, and tells you quite bluntly to go away.
‘When that first happened to me, I just said, “Absolutely, thank you very much”, followed by a very gentle “I hope you get better soon”. But even after that rebuff, I went back to the chapel and said thank you to God for the encounter, because it’s not a failure, it’s just making yourself available. Some of the most powerful encounters are the least expected or planned.’
I was in the early days of my NHS chaplaincy work and the course genuinely mirrored my experiences in the hospital.
A sign
Initially there were four in the Spiritual Care Series group, and then it dropped down to three, including Jed, plus Philippa as facilitator. They met in person and worked with the videos and the course book over eight weeks, with ‘homework’ in between.
‘In the beginning I did it because Philippa asked if I wanted to do it, and I said I would love to. But then I really got into the course material. I was in the early days of my NHS chaplaincy work and the course genuinely mirrored my experiences in the hospital.
‘I was so grateful that God was using it to equip me for the work I was so passionate about. Session by session it addressed the different experiences and questions I was encountering in my work: it seemed to me to be a sign that I was on the right path.’
The course visits some quite dark places, because it addresses the serial losses that older people face.
Challenging but rewarding
The course has a reputation for being ‘challenging’ and ‘demanding’. Does Jed agree?
‘The course visits some quite dark places, because it addresses the serial losses that older people face: homes, loved ones, health, place in the community, memory… And doing the course, you have to dig deep into your own experience and beliefs, so it’s probably not for everyone. But I found it remarkably valuable.
‘It was beautifully paced. Nothing was hurried. Every subject was thoroughly covered and discussed. The tutors and contributors are well respected within their communities; they are highly experienced and genuinely know what they’re talking about.
‘For me, the main lesson was the importance of good listening skills: listening attentively, being fully present with the person you’re speaking with, and giving them your entire focus and attention. That’s the main lesson: the importance of genuine listening and real presence.
‘I liked that there were students in the videos too, people like me going through the training to offer spiritual support to older people. They voiced a lot of the questions that I had myself. I honestly liked everything about the course.’
At the end of the course, Jed and the participants were keen to find a way to follow up their shared experience and have now started an ongoing support group where they can meet to talk about their ministries.
