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Hi! I’m Kirk Ruch – I am a trained and experienced minister, church pastor – and I offer spiritual direction.

I’ve been well-married for 48 years, with 4 wonderful adult children and 12 even better grandchildren. I live in metro Vancouver, BC Canada.

I hold a 60-hour Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree from Regent College, here in Vancouver, BC. I finished it in 2021. I love that place!

I hold certificates of completion for Living From the Heart and Art of Spiritual Direction through SoulStream Initiatives. What a wonderful journey that has been!

My lifelong spiritual roots draw from a wide range of Judaeo-Christian influences. I am grateful for opportunities to discern and learn from many different people and flows of thought and practice. 

I have over 50 years of considered experience in spiritually-oriented life, and over 45 years of professional experience in human service (ministries) of various kinds:

• pastoral care
• formal ministry in church community
• formal theological instruction
• spiritual formation
• intercultural communication

– in Canada, Ukraine, and the USA.

In personal spiritual consulting I’ve served as:

• a guide for non-Christians, pre-Christian seekers and new Christians – ordinary people, as they seek spiritual connection and growth
• a spiritual companion for Christians and non-Christians in grieving and challenging life situations
• a spiritual companion for “post-Christians”: people who are trying to hold on to what’s good, while they recover from confusion and pain from bad experiences of religion.

I receive spiritual direction, training as a spiritual director and supervision for offering spiritual direction under the auspices of the SoulStream Initiatives. 

I hold a Certificate in Regenerative Culture from the Eden Center for Regenerative Culture of Abilene Christian University. 

I subscribe to the Code of Ethics of Spiritual Directors International, which you can read here. 

These affiliations, qualifications and experiences don’t make me an authority over other people. They do help inform me as an interim pastoral minister, teacher, and as an open-hearted companion in your journey of spiritual discovery, growth, and flourishing.

Nowadays, in my dreams I’m a sparkling acoustic guitarist along the lines of Pierre Bensusan, Phil Keaggy, Michael Hedges, Alex Degrassi, Andy McKee, and Stephen Wake.  (Click the links to enjoy.) Reality is rather different!  In my dreams I’m fully multi-lingual, fluently speaking English, Spanish, Mandarin, Gaelic, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hebrew, and a few others.  No, reality doesn’t quite match up!  We live in a beautiful part of the world, and in my dreams I do a lot of hiking in the lush rain-forested wilderness.  Again, reality is rather different … but it’s mostly fun trying.  And in every case, in my imagination God’s unseen-but-ever-present love chuckles kindly at the disparity and says, sotto voce, “Keep practicing.”