Rev. Bellator

I became a minister after losing my first wife to suicide and nearly losing myself to addiction. I found sobriety in 2001 through AA, and with it, I found a path back to faith—not the shiny, performative kind, but the raw, honest kind that helps people survive. I’ve spent my life serving those society often forgets: the homeless, the addicted, the hurting. I became a minister to stand with people in the dark and remind them they’re not alone, that grace is real, and that healing is possible—even when it doesn’t look holy. This calling isn’t about perfection. It’s about presence.

I’m from the United Kingdom, but I spent 24 years in Los Angeles in service on Skid Row. I have now returned to the UK.

When I first got ordained online via your monastery site in 2007, it wasn’t for novelty. It was because I needed a way to stand in my calling without waiting for permission from systems that hadn’t seen my life. I’d lived through trauma, addiction, recovery, and service, and I wanted to offer something sacred to people like me—people who were grieving, healing, searching. My hope was simple: to be someone people could turn to when they had no one else. To speak about God without shame. To create spaces where love and presence mattered more than titles and robes. It wasn’t about becoming official. It was about becoming available.

I was ordained through the Universal Life Church in 2007 as a way to answer a deep spiritual calling at a time when traditional institutions didn’t make space for someone like me—queer, trauma-surviving, and raw with grief. I hold that ordination with respect because it allowed me to begin ministering where people actually needed it most: in recovery rooms, on the streets, in moments of loss, love, and real-life mess.

I identify as Christian—not in a dogmatic, exclusionary way, but in the way Christ actually lived: showing up for the marginalized, breaking bread with the rejected, offering presence over performance. My faith is inclusive, trauma-informed, and rooted in radical compassion. I serve all people, regardless of belief, and I honour each person’s spiritual path without trying to convert or correct them.

I don’t just “perform weddings”—I hold space for real love, real people, and real stories. Whether you’ve come through fire or found each other by surprise, I meet you where you are—with honesty, reverence, and zero pressure to fit some cookie-cutter idea of what a wedding “should” be. I work with couples to create ceremonies that reflect their truth—not tradition for tradition’s sake, but something meaningful, personal, and grounded. No fluff. No judgement. Just love, words that matter, and one sacred promise at a time.

I have traveled all over the world carrying the word.

I offer real presence—for the moments that matter, and the ones nobody sees. Yes, I do weddings, funerals, blessings, and rites of passage. But I also sit with people in grief. I hold space for recovery. I listen when someone just needs to be heard without being fixed. I show up when things are raw. I honour love in all its forms. Whether you need a ceremony that feels like you, a space to speak freely about faith and pain, or someone to help you carry the weight for a while—I’m here. I serve people of all beliefs, identities, and backgrounds, and I don’t believe in shame-based spirituality. I believe in love, in healing, in honesty—and in showing up for each other, even when it’s messy.