I am a Metaphysical Minister • Wedding Officiant • Chaplain • Life Coach, in Simcoe, Ontario.

If you’ve ever loved God but felt allergic to church drama, we’re going to get along just fine.

I’m Bishop James W. Lewis, Bishop at The Centre For Spiritual Enlightenment in Simcoe, Ontario, and an Ordained Metaphysical Minister with the Canadian International Metaphysical Ministry.

My calling is simple and stubborn: I help people trade a fear-based God for a love-based one.

The Official Stuff (a.k.a. “On Paper”)

On paper, I’m a: Licensed Officiant with the Province of Ontario,

Licensed Ministry Chaplain, Licensed Minister & Ordained Officiant (Marriage Specialization)

Theology specialization graduate. Recipient of the Marriage Ministry, Prayer Ministry, and Pastoral Care Awards. Trained in Level One Psychology and Life Coach Ministry

That’s all nice. But honestly?

The letters after my name matter less than the people sitting in front of me.

From Sunday School Cookies to “I’m Out”

My spiritual life started like a lot of kids’ stories: my parents wanted my sisters and me out of the house on Sunday mornings. So off to Sunday School we went.

I landed in a Catholic church, mostly because: My friends were there, and I liked the priest’s “cookie.” (Communion, for the theologically precise.)

I stayed Catholic into my late teens and seriously considered the priesthood. Then in my early twenties, I hit the wall many people hit: I got disillusioned with organized religion—the hypocrisy, the fear, the shame dressed up as “holiness.” So I walked away. From church. From ministry. From the whole thing.

Lost, Depressed, and Haunted by “Not Enough”

Without faith as an anchor, I drifted.

I made some lousy choices. I battled depression. I could be in a room full of people and still feel completely alone—unwanted, unloved, and fundamentally “not enough.”

That’s the script a lot of us inherit: You’re not good enough. God’s angry with you. You’re a sinner. Be afraid.

Traditional fear-based Christianity had trained me to see myself as broken, dirty, and one misstep away from hellfire. If that were literally true, I’d be walking around like a Roman candle by now.

What I wasn’t hearing was this: “God loves you—no matter what.”

Becoming a Minister… and Still Not Feeling at Home

Despite all this, I eventually became an ordained Christian minister. On paper, that should’ve fixed everything. It didn’t.

The God I met in my heart did not match the God I heard preached from many pulpits.

The God I know is not: jealous, petty, moody, or sitting on a throne with a cosmic scorecard.

The God I know is love itself—steady, kind, patient, and endlessly accepting.

I began to see “sin” not as a permanent stain but as a learning experience—the messy, human process of remembering who we really are. You don’t burn in hell for making mistakes. You grow from them.

The Day I Walked Out of Church Leadership

In the early 1990s, I served in a so-called “non-denominational” church (translation: definitely Christian, just dodging labels). I studied under the pastor and poured myself into serving.

One day, we were counselling a couple in serious marital trouble. After listening to them both, the pastor turned to the husband and dumped all the blame on him. No compassion. No nuance. Just shame.

I kept quiet in their home. But the minute we left, I told the pastor exactly what I thought.

Our job as ministers is not to crush people with guilt.

It’s to walk with them toward healing.

That day I realized: I couldn’t keep serving in a system that used God’s name to weaponize shame. So, I walked away. Again.

And I don’t think I’m alone. A lot of people aren’t rejecting God—they’re rejecting abuse done in God’s name.

Journalist, Witness, and Reluctant Truth-Teller

My desire to serve never left; it just changed uniforms.

I became a journalist at a community newspaper on Six Nations territory. There, I got a front-row seat to real life:

Land claims, Government injustice, The gut-level impact of residential schools. Stories that never appeared in our sanitized school textbooks. We were taught in school that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America. Hard to “discover” a place that’s already fully inhabited.

After five years, I went north as a regional editor in Labrador, again working with Indigenous communities, listening to their stories and struggles.

Labrador was unforgettable: A beautiful place to visit.

A very cold place to live. A powerful place to learn what resilience really looks like.

Coming Home to Ministry – Metaphysical, Heart-Centred, and Fear-Free

In 2016, the pull toward ministry became too strong to ignore. I returned to seminary, finished my studies, and in 2020 was ordained as an Evangelical Minister.

In 2023, I was ordained as a Metaphysical Minister with the Canadian International Metaphysical Ministry. That’s when everything clicked: Less dogma. More direct experience of God.

Less “believe this or else.” More “Let’s heal what hurts and remember who you really are.”

Today, I serve as Bishop at The Centre For Spiritual Enlightenment and lead Woodlawn Family RV Chapel Services in our summer season. I blend Scripture, A Course in Miracles, the wisdom of early Christian writings, and lived human experience to help people feel seen, loved, and spiritually safe.

My mission is clear:

To offer hope to those who feel forgotten.

To remind people that God loves them exactly as they are.

To replace fear-based religion with love-based spirituality.

Being a minister means I don’t just preach love; I have to practice it—especially with the people the church has often hurt the most.

Daily Practice, Real Growth, and One Honest Flaw

Most days start the same way for me: Quiet. Prayer. Listening.

I sit with God, reflect, and ask, “How do You want to love people through me today?” Then I try—imperfectly—to carry that awareness into every wedding, every sermon, every bedside prayer, every conversation.

Now, my wife Tina insisted I end this bio with where I still need work.

My first answer was: “If I’m created in the image of God, what improvement could I possibly need?”

Let’s just say… that answer did not earn me any extra brownie points.

So, here’s the real answer: I’m still learning to pause before I react. We all have triggers. They expose our unhealed places. When I remember to stop, breathe, and let God into that split second before I respond, everything shifts. That’s my ongoing work. That’s where grace meets grit.

If You’re Looking for Someone Real…

If you’re looking for a minister or officiant who:

believes God is love, not fear, refuses to use shame as a spiritual tool, honours your story, your doubts, your questions, and isn’t afraid to be real, laugh a little, and tell the truth—…I’d be honoured to walk with you.

You are not broken. You are not beyond hope. You are not disqualified from love. You’re on a journey—and I’d be glad to take a few steps of it with you.

Reverend Christina Shields

Metaphysical Minister • Art Therapist • Spiritual Healer • Intuitive Counselor

I’m Reverend Christina Shields, an Ordained Minister with the Canadian Metaphysical Ministry, a Certified Art Therapist, Spiritual Healer, Intuitive Counselor, and co-writer for The Centre for Spiritual Enlightenment.

But before any of those titles existed, I was a woman trying to survive her own mind.

From Surviving to Awakening

After a difficult childhood, much of my adult life became an exhausting loop of depression, self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, and trying to outrun pain that never seemed to leave. I didn’t want to spend my life numb on medication or endlessly reliving trauma in talk therapy, so I made a fierce decision:

I was going to heal. Really heal.

I dove into a self-taught education in:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

• Psychotherapy

• Emotional and spiritual healing

My life started to shift—but the shadows didn’t disappear overnight. I still wrestled with suicidal thoughts and constant anxiety about the future.

The Year Everything Changed

In 2023, everything turned upside down—in the best possible way.

My husband, Pastor James, and I sold our house, packed up our lives, and moved to a quiet, secluded place. We hit “pause” on the world:

• No social media (goodbye, Facebook).

• No drama.

• No old patterns.

We stepped away from certain friends and family dynamics that kept wounding us and chose to focus completely on healing and on the work God was actually calling us to do.

I filled my days with:

• Prayer and meditation

• Deep study

• A fierce commitment to break the old cycles of depression and self-sabotage

A Course in Miracles, Art, and a New Mind

Years earlier I had studied A Course in Miracles, but this time I went all in. I immersed myself in its psychotherapy principles, and it completely rewired the way I thought about God, myself, and the world.

Month after month of study and inner work led to a profound transformation—and eventually to my ordination as a Metaphysical Minister. James, who already had eleven traditional ordinations, joined me in this new metaphysical path.

I also trained as a Certified Art Therapist, discovering that creativity was one of the most powerful tools for my own healing. Brush strokes, colours, and images became prayers in motion—ways to move pain out of the body and onto the canvas.

I devoured spiritual texts:

• A Course in Miracles

• The Bible, especially the New Testament (I fell in love with scripture)

• Other mystical and metaphysical writings

I practiced yoga, walked daily, and lived with headphones full of online workshops, podcasts, and lectures. Every day became a classroom. Every moment, an invitation to wake up.

Ready to Serve

Now, with a heart full of lived experience and a toolkit overflowing with spiritual and therapeutic practices, I’m ready—and deeply honoured—to serve.

My passion is to:

• Walk with people on their journey home to themselves and to God

• Help them move from suffering to clarity and peace

• Offer comfort, insight, and practical tools for emotional and spiritual healing

I believe suffering—emotional or physical—is often the alarm clock of the soul. It shakes us, wakes us, and pushes us to ask deeper questions:

Who am I really?
Why am I here?
What lives within me that I haven’t yet claimed?

When we turn inward and seek the Divine in our own consciousness, suffering stops being our prison and becomes our teacher. From there, we start choosing healing instead of repeating pain.

Writing, Revelation, and Radical Truth

I am now the co-author of a powerful series of cross-philosophical sermons and daily inspirations, loosely based on the dialogue of A Course in Miracles and blended with New Testament scripture.

These messages are influenced by:

• C.S. Lewis (especially The Screwtape Letters)

• Neville Goddard

• And other mystical thinkers who dared to challenge rigid religious ideas

Our work is:

• Deeply biblical, yet refreshingly practical

• Designed to challenge fear-based doctrine

• Focused on empowering people to form a living relationship with the Christ within

We invite people to consider a radical shift:
To step out of victim consciousness, guilt, and “I’m not worthy” thinking, and into the truth that we are loved, created with purpose, and filled with divine potential.

Come Journey With Us

Our videos and teachings are available on:

• Bishop James Lewis’s Facebook page

• The Centre for Spiritual Enlightenment Facebook page

These messages are not your typical sermons. They’re honest, raw, uplifting, sometimes challenging—but always rooted in love and empowerment.

They are free, always, for anyone who needs encouragement, a new perspective, or a reminder that:

You are not broken.
You are not forgotten.
You are far more powerful and loved than you’ve ever been taught to believe.

I’m Reverend Christina, and if you’re ready to step into a new story for your life, I’d be honoured to walk beside you.