Our Presenters
Spirit River Community is excited to introduce you to gifted retreat and workshop facilitators, listed below in alphabetical order. Visit this page often to see who will be offering classes in the coming months - this page will be updated on a regular basis.
Kathy Berken, M.A. in Theology
Kathy is an experienced retreat leader, spiritual director, monthly book study facilitator for the Growing in Wisdom: Seeking Deeper Generativity program since 2021, and a graduate of the Forest Dwelling: Spirituality for Our Wisdom Years program at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. Kathy also writes monthly columns on spirituality for an Iowa Catholic newspaper. Past life experiences include being a house coordinator for the L’Arche community in Iowa, writing the memoir Walking on a Rolling Deck: Life on the Ark, and being a math teacher. She has two grown children and four grandchildren. A two-time breast cancer survivor, Kathy enjoys learning anything about most everything, riding her bike in the woods, and spending time with family and friends. You can contact Kathy at kathyberken@gmail.com
Sarah Donnelly, M.Div.
Sarah celebrated 30 years in ministry in 2024. She is a spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and served as the Director of Programming at Queen’s House Retreat & Renewal Centre in Saskatoon SK for 7 years prior to the retreat centre closing in August 2024. In October 2024 Sarah launched her own small business: Spirit River Community – A Retreat Centre Without Walls, www.spiritrivercommunity.org. She is a graduate of St. Peter’s Seminary (M.Div.) in London, ON and received her spiritual direction training through The Haden Institute: Spiritual Direction in the Jungian Mystical Christian Tradition. Sarah is also a graduate of the Forest Dwelling Program, Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, studying the Spirituality of Aging. Following this program, Sarah and Nancy Phillips (Program Coordinator) co-created a two-year online program called Growing in Wisdom: Seeking Deeper Generativity, www.growinginwisdom.ca where she serves as Program Administrator. You can learn more about Sarah at www.sarahdonnelly.ca
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Rev. Dr. Mary C. Earle
Mary Earle is an Episcopal Priest, Author, Poet, Retreat Leader and Spiritual Director.
Until her retirement, she taught classes in spirituality for the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. Mary has authored ten books; the subjects include the spirituality of living with illness, rule of life, Celtic Christian spirituality, the Desert Mothers, and Julian of Norwich. Her latest is a book of her poetry. She also has contributed a chapter to the new anthology Wisdom of Our Elders.
Mary has offered presentations and retreats in a variety of ecumenical settings, including conferences of the Academy for Spiritual Formation, Spiritual Directors International, the International Thomas Merton Society, Oblate School of Theology and hospice organizations. She has written articles for a variety of journals, including Presence: the Journal of Spiritual Directors International, Radical Grace, Reflections, and The Lutheran. She was included in the Living Spiritual Teachers project of Spirituality and Practice. Currently Mary is serving as a core faculty member for two sister programs, Forest Dwelling: Spirituality for Our Wisdom Years offered through Oblate School of Theology, and Growing in Wisdom: Seeking Deeper Generativity which is a Canadian-based online program - both are two-year formation processes exploring the spirituality of aging. You can learn more about Mary at https://www.marycearle.com/
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Jean Epp-Gauthier
Jean is a retired elementary and high school teacher. During her teaching career, she taught Visual Arts and English as an Additional Language, among other classes. For a number of years, Jean has had a keen interest in mandala-making as a journey in self-exploration, and healing, not to mention a moment of fun and relaxation in a sometimes troubled and hectic world. She has led mandala workshops with students, teachers, seniors, and cancer survivors.
Kalyn Falk, M.A.
Kalyn Falk, MA, is a spiritual director and an Instructor for the Conflict Resolution Studies program at the University of Winnipeg in partnership with Canadian Mennonite University. She was involved in the Shekinah Formation Program in spiritual direction for the past 10 years, at first as a co-Director alongside Sister Mary Coswin, and then serving as Director from 2020 to the fall of 2024. Kalyn has been honoured to accompany people in spiritual direction and retreats for more than 20 years. Her hope is to create spaces where people can learn and practice processes of deep listening in order to become more fully themselves, transform their relationships, and restore their connection to the Sacred. Kalyn lives in Winnipeg with her partner, David.
You can learn more about Kalyn at www.kalynfalk.com
Margi Hollingshead, MSW, PhD, OblSB
Margi is retired from the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Regina where she served for 14 years. Previously she was the Director of Regina Christian Counselling Centre and taught for 19 years at Canadian Bible College in Regina. She holds a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Wisconsin as well as a PhD in higher education from Walden University. Margi is a lay member of the Sisters of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota, where she serves on the Oblate Advisory Team. Margi is a graduate of the Growing in Wisdom program, Cohort One, and enjoys offering workshops exploring the Spirituality of Aging. In 2023, Margi moved from Regina to Bloomington, Illinois, to be closer to family and to enjoy milder winters. She is committed to expanding our horizons as people of faith in a diverse world and, these days,
her dual Canadian-USA citizenship leans heavily on the Canadian side.
You can contact Margi at margi.hollingshead@gmail.com
Sally Ito, B.F.A., M.A.
Sally Ito, B.F.A. (Creative Writing), M.A. (English) is a writer and translator who lives in Winnipeg, Treaty One Treaty, ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota and Dene people and the homeland of the Métis Nation. She is a creative writing instructor at Canadian Mennonite University. Sally is the author of four books of poetry, Frogs in the Rain Barrel (1996), Season of Mercy (1999), Alert to Glory (2011), and Heart’s Hydrography (2022). She has also published a collection of short stories called Floating Shore in 1998 and is perhaps best known for her 2018 memoir The Emperor’s Orphans about the 4,000 Japanese Canadians who were repatriated to Japan during World War II. You can learn more about Sally by visiting these websites: https://www.cmu.ca/about/faculty/574 and https://writersunion.ca/member/sally-ito
Sr. Teresita Kambeitz OSU
Sister Teresita Kambeitz is a religious educator who teaches in adult faith enrichment programs, writes for the Catholic Missions in Canada magazine and conducts retreats throughout the province and beyond. Her vocation as teacher has been carried out in Swift Current, in Saskatoon at Holy Cross High School and St. Thomas More College, and in Edmonton at Newman Theological College, as well as overseas in summer courses for teachers in the British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Venezuela, Latvia and South Africa. An Ursuline of Prelate, she holds two bachelors’ degrees, two masters’ degrees, a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and a degree in piano. She grew up in Richmound, Saskatchewan, in the south-west corner of the province, in a family of two parents, four sisters and four brothers. There are twelve teachers in her family.
Allie Kochert, MA, LPC, CSD
Allie is a spiritual director, licensed psychotherapist, and burnout expert with over 20 years experience supporting folks in their renewal journeys. She specializes in burnout and moral injury in healers, helpers, and spiritual professionals. You can learn more about Allie at www.rootgrowthrive.com.
Rev. David Maginley
David is a chaplain, author, and public speaker. Recently retired as a spiritual counselor at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, David is the award-winning author of Beyond Surviving: Cancer and Your Spiritual Journey and the newly-released book, Early Exits: Spirituality, Mortality and Meaning in an Age of Medical Assistance in Dying. David has also survived cancer four times, which resulted in a profound near-death experience and explorations in the nature of consciousness and the connection of body, mind and spirit. He knows what it’s like to have cancer from both sides of the hospital bed, and has a sense of this life from both sides of the veil. David is ordained with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, specialist with the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care, member of Canadian Association for Psychosocial Oncology, the International Association for Near-Death Studies, and is featured in the documentaries Here Right Now and When You Die.
You can learn more about David at https://www.davidmaginley.com/
Dianne Mantyka, DMin
Dianne Mantyka loves to accompany those seeking freedom to be all they are created to be in relation to self, God, others, and creation. She is a retreat facilitator, spiritual director, and supervisor of spiritual directors. Through Queen’s House Retreat & Renewal Centre, Dianne co-directed the past 3 cohorts of their Spiritual Director Formation Program. She is on the Core Team for the Saskatoon Spiritual Directors Association. Her ecumenical background and formation includes Biological Sciences, mission work, campus ministry, inner healing prayer, contemplative prayer, CPE, Ignatian spirituality, Boundless Compassion, Transforming Center and Community, Growing in Wisdom, an MDiv through Regent College and an SFS DMin. Dianne's spirituality is lived out in the context of being a wife, caregiver, stepmom, and Oma. She finds joy in nature and the outdoors, her canine companion, capturing beauty with her camera, community, solitude, and connection with kindred spirits. Dianne believes God is always making all things new as we attentively surrender to Christ’s loving and compassionate presence. Her experience allows her to connect with people from a variety of backgrounds.
You can contact Dianne at dimantyka@sasktel.net
Marilyn McEntyre, PhD
Marilyn's writing and teaching focus on spirituality, reading, writing, and healing. Marilyn has worked with the Center on Aging at U.C. Berkeley and is a fellow at their Program in Medical Humanities. Two books that draw on her work as hospice volunteer are A Faithful Farewell: Living Your Last Chapter with Love, and A Long Letting Go: Meditations on Losing Someone You Love. In her book, Patient Poets: Illness from Inside Out, Marilyn offers deep reflections on the poetry of those who are living with illness and disability. Other books include Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict; When Poets Pray; and Make a List: How a Simple Practice Can Change your Life and Open your Heart. Marilyn has taught college students, seminarians, medical students, and adult learners for many years and leads retreats and writing workshops around the country. She loves to coach both experienced writers and anyone who wants to write just to see what happens.
You can learn more about Marilyn at http://www.marilynmcentyre.com
Faith Nostbakken, PhD, DMin
Faith has been a spiritual director for over two decades and is part of the leadership team for the “Becoming Presence” faith formation and spiritual direction program through the Providence Renewal Centre (PRC, Edmonton, AB). She also co-leads the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises and offers other retreats and workshops through PRC and in other venues. Faith is an ordained deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), playing a role in various ecumenical endeavours locally, provincially, and nationally. The author of books on Shakespeare with a PhD in English Literature and a love of writing poetry, she currently teaches creative writing at King’s University and courses on writing, rhetoric, and literature at Newman Theological College (Edmonton). She has an MTS (Newman Theological College) and a DMin (Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon). Living most of her adult life with chronic illness—its own “school of learning”—she has deep empathy for the challenges others face and a deep passion for attending to the meaning that can emerge around or through those challenges.
You can learn more about Faith at https://faithnostbakken.ca/
Brian E. Pearson
Brian E. Pearson is a former Anglican priest who, for almost forty years, knew both the sublime and the ridiculous of the church world, often loving it, sometimes hating it, but eventually leaving it to follow his own soulful path. He is the author of How the Light Gets In: Short Stories; Passiontide: A Novel; and Pie Face Boy: In Search of Soul; and most recently, Talking to Trees: A Journey into Soul. He is a member of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society. Brian is also a singer/songwriter and the producer and host of The Mystic Cave, a podcast that explores the elements, both new and ancient, of an emerging, contemporary spirituality. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, with his wife Jean, close to his three grown children and two granddaughters. You can learn more about Brian at www.brianepearson.ca​
Rev. Caroline Penhale Lukacs
Rev. Caroline Penhale Lukacs, ACC, is a vocational minister with the United Church of Canada and the founder of ClearMoment Coaching. With over 30 years of experience in human services, Caroline combines her love of ritual with her love of coaching. She is dedicated to supporting clients as they gain clarity and foster resilience, helping them connect with a deeper sense of peace and purpose. You can learn more about Caroline at www.clearmoment.ca
Nancy Phillips
Nancy is a Spiritual Director, Retired Nurse, Grandmother, Retreat Director, and Benedictine Oblate who finds solace in green spaces. She is a graduate of the Shekinah: Formation in Spiritual Direction program and graduate of the Forest Dwelling Program, Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, studying the Spirituality of Aging. Nancy is the Program Coordinator and curriculum developer of Growing in Wisdom: Seeking Deeper Generativity, www.growinginwisdom.ca and lives in Winnipeg MB.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI
Ron Rolheiser, OMI is a Roman Catholic priest, member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and served as president of Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas for fifteen years before retiring in September 2020. Fr. Ron is a theologian, professor, and award-winning author. He holds Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Ottawa and Newman Theological College Edmonton and Master’s degrees from the University of San Francisco and the University of Louvain, Belgium along with a PhD/STD from the University of Louvain. Specializations: systematic theology, philosophy, Augustine mysticism, and spirituality. Apart from his academic knowledge in systematic theology and philosophy, he has become a popular speaker in contemporary spirituality religion, and the secular world. He writes a weekly column that is carried in over 70 newspapers around the world and has published 17 books. You can learn more about Fr. Ron - and read his past and current weekly columns - at www.ronrolheiser.com
Richard Rosin
Richard is the founder of Richard Rosin Funeral Director Ltd., a full-service funeral company specializing in Green Burials, Home Funerals, and online educational events. Keenly aware of environmental concerns, his board activities with the Green Burial Society of Canada have led to co-founding Green Burial Manitoba. It aims to encourage and provide resources to cemeteries, funeral directors and families to make better choices in their environmental legacies. Winnipeg's Friendliest Undertaker™ is active in the community including board membership with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, the Manitoba LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and past Council president of Grace Lutheran Church. When relaxing, you can find Richard enjoying the trailer with his four dogs (in order of equal cuteness) - Addi, Lola, Joey and George.
Shawn Sanford Beck
Shawn Sanford Beck (MDiv) is the founder of GreenSpirit Chaplaincy nested at Grosvenor Park United Church (Treaty Six, Saskatoon), and is also a spiritual exploration guide in the Lifelong Learning Pathway at St. Andrew's College. He has been involved with eco-spirituality and green thealogy for the past two decades. From urban full moon ceremonies, to off-grid earthen prayer, to extensive work with druidic and other creation-centric traditions, Shawn has sown the seeds of eco-spiritual practice wherever he goes! You can check out some of Shawn's writing:
https://ecosophian.wordpress.com/about/
https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/christian-alternative-books/our-books/christian-animism https://darcyblahut.ca/prairie_rune.html
Find out more about the GreenSpirit Chaplaincy over here: https://linktr.ee/greenpriest , or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/579371344690063
Janelle Schneider
Janelle Schneider is an author, speaker, workshop facilitator and spiritual director. She has been a spiritual director for 15 years, and has been engaged in ongoing study with enneagram symbol for over a decade. She has experienced Christianity through a variety of denominational lenses, which has given her a unique perspective from which to accompany others in their experience of the Divine and discovery of a nourishing faith practice. She and her husband live in Winnipeg, MB.
You can learn more about Janelle at https://www.janelle-schneider.com/
Dr. James Schmeiser
James Schmeiser, Ph.D. is a Professor Emeritus of King’s University College, Western University, London, Ontario. James has introduced and taught courses on dreams and spirituality for many years, both in-person and on zoom. Working with a small group offers the possibility to not only deepen the understanding of one’s personal dreams, but to gain insight from the dreams of others.
Rev. Dr. Don Schweitzer
Don Schweitzer is an ordained minister in The United Church of Canada. Born in Montreal and raised in Kingston, Ontario, he has lived in Saskatchewan for over thirty years. He has a Ph.D. in systematic theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. He has been teaching and writing about Jesus as a member of the faculty of St. Andrew’s College, Saskatoon, for twenty-three years. During this time he has also lectured and taught about Jesus at the Han Shin School of Religion in Seoul, Korea, and at Bishop’s College, United Theological College, and Kerala United Theology Seminary, in India. His publications include three books and a number of articles on Christology. You can contact Don at don.schweitzer@saskatoontheologicalunion.ca