Award-winning Author & Animal Chaplain Educator
MEET SARAH
Dr. Sarah A. Bowen, DMin, MSc is an award-winning author and co-founder of Compassion Consortium―the first interfaith, interspiritual, and interspecies community for people who care about and advocate for animals and the planet. At the Consortium, Sarah serves as executive of the Animal Chaplaincy Training program, where she is developing the field of interspecies spiritual care (Bowen, 2021).
As a practicing animal chaplain, she also companions animals through death, creates sacred memorial rituals, counsels humans grieving animal loss, and advocates for exploited and endangered species in both religious and secular contexts. An RNS Vatican News Reporter featured her response to Pope Francis’s suggestion that having pets is selfish.
Her latest award-winning book is Sacred Sendoffs: An Animal Chaplain’s Advice for Surviving Animal Loss, Making Life Meaningful, & Trying to Heal the Planet (Monkfish Publishing). A columnist on animal/human relationships for Spirituality & Health magazine, Bowen’s work has also appeared in Parabola, Tricycle, Religion Dispatches, Psychology Today, Animal Culture Magazine and the Journal of Animal Ethics.
Sarah is also Dean of Discovery at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, where she encourages emerging clergy to align their spiritual values with animal and planetary welfare.
Sarah holds a BA in Human Ecology from Michigan State University, MA in Religious Studies from Chicago Theological Seminary, was ordained through One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, completed Emerson Theological's Passmore Animal Chaplain Program. She completed multidisciplinary research mapping the emerging field of interspecies spiritual care and the impact of spiritual practices on moral distress in animal-centered professionals through a Doctor of Ministry in Chaplaincy at Chicago Theological Seminary and an MSc in Anthrozoology at Canisius University. Her dissertation and research findings are currently being published. Bowen’s area of research is addressing moral injury in animal-centered professions through trauma-informed spiritual and emotional care. Instagram @modernreverend
UPCOMING CLASSES & EventS
Begins September 2026 | From Compassion Consortium | 9 month Certification Course |
Channel your passion for animals and the planet into a caring and supportive vocation. Animal chaplains provide support for both animals and humans by using ritual, ceremony, and the tools of spiritual companionship. Train with Sarah Bowen and a wide range of subject-matter experts. The ACT program is non-denominational and does not require students to have a specific religious or spiritual outlook. It will, though, prepare you to work with a diverse set of belief systems, so that you can support people regardless of their own outlook. Our next cohort begins classes September 2025. Learn more or schedule a consult with our program director by clicking below.
