I’m passionate about helping other Christians in their walk with the Lord! We’re told to “encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thess 5:11) yet for many that’s not something they’re used to. I want to support you, and help you see what God is doing in your life, whether through my writing, speaking, spiritual accompaniment/direction, or retreat and pilgrimages.

The world is a strange place at the best of times, and currently a uncomfortable with so much unknown and fragile, so much uncertainty and stress. I’d love to support, encourage and build up those like you who’re perhaps feeling a little lost, a little weary, or wondering where God is and what he is doing or saying to you at the moment.

Penelope Swithinbank is an experienced pilgrimage and retreat leader, conference speaker and Spiritual Director/Therapist.  She has been leading retreats and pilgrimages for over 20 years, regularly leads pilgrimages in the UK, such as the Celtic Pilgrimage in Cornwall; and on the Via Francigena in Italy. She has had an international ministry, including churches in America and the UK, and speaking on Women's Retreats and leading conferences. Her most special memory is of opening the US Senate in prayer and being guest chaplain.

Penelope was the first ordained woman on the staff of The Falls Church, Virginia, where she headed up the Connections and Communications Ministry in a church of nearly 3,000. Later, she was the first chaplain at St Mellitus College, London, and then ran The Vine at Mays Farm, a Christian Retreat House providing sanctuary mostly to burned-out clergy, although normal people came too, for retreats and time out.  She now divides her time between mentoring, supporting and pastoring clergy and others,  Chaplaincy at Bath Abbey, leading retreats, and writing.  

Penelope is an avid walker and spends a lot of her time stomping in the hills and valleys near her home outside Bath. She is the author of three books, Women by Design, Walking Back to Happiness; her third, Scent of Water, a devotional for times of spiritual bewilderment and grief, has just been published. She is a wife, mother and grandmother and says of the 6 grandchildren that they are so wonderful she should have had them first.