Formed by the Spirit The Newsletter of the Southwark Diocesan Spiritual Formation Group Opportunities, events, resources and articles on prayer and spirituality Issue 20: April 2014 Contents: What s on? Events, courses, opportunities... 2-4 Reflection: We take time to develop 5 To be a pilgrim 6 Tools for Prayer: Where lost life wakes 7 God creates out of nothing. Wonderful, you say. Yes to be sure. But he does what is still more wonderful. He makes saints out of sinners Soren Kierkegaard
What s On? Events, Courses, Opportunities Soul Songs Praying the Psalms May 15 th and 22 nd 7pm to 9pm in St. Matthew s House, Croydon The psalms are soul songs of lament, longing, praise and seeking. These sessions will explore a variety of ways they might resource our individual and common prayer. Led by Chris Chapman, Spiritual Formation Adviser Merton Deanery Spiritual Formation Group Food for the Journey - Workshops on Prayer and Spirituality How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. [Psalm 36] Between two waves of the sea The spirituality of T.S. Eliot s Four Quartets May 17th Holy Trinity South Wimbledon June 14th St George Morden July 12th St Mark Mitcham A variety of workshops will be available including: June 16 th and 23 rd in Trinity House, Chapel Court, London SE1 1HW, 10.30am to 1pm T.S. Eliot s Four Quartets are 4 linked poems exploring the relationship between time and eternity, ending and beginning and the quest for inner freedom. Whilst not attempting to unpack the meaning of every word of the poems we will explore how his imagery relates to our own spiritual experience, and leads us into prayer. To book for Soul Songs or Between Two Waves of the Sea contact Chris Chapman chris.chapman@southwark.anglican.org 020 7939 9474 Prayer within the rhythm of everyday life Healing and Prayer Godly play God in all things Julian meetings Praying with the Iona community Taize music and prayer Bible study The sacred wonders of Merton and Southwark Praying with new parents Each of the days begins at 10.00am and finishes by 2.00pm Tea and coffee provided. Please bring your own lunch.
Sisters of St. Andrew in Lewisham You may be aware that the Sisters of St. Andrew, formerly in Edenbridge, have moved to Belmont Hill in Lewisham They offer a welcoming space suitable for groups seeking a venue for quiet days and for individual retreat. They plan to offer a regular programme of events. For details look on their website: www.sisters-of-st-andrew.com Three initial events: Open house afternoon Saturday 3rd May An opportunity to meet with the sisters and hear about the facilities they are able to offer. Come anytime during the afternoon between 14:00-17.30. At 16:30 there will be a time of prayer with the sisters in the chapel which you are welcome to join. SPIDIR Spiritual Direction Training A new course will run from September 2014 to July 2016 in the London Bridge area Applicants are required to have some experience of directing others, even if in some instances this may be very informal or occasional. Applicants will be invited for an interview to discuss the appropriateness of the course before they are accepted onto it. An application leaflet and form can be found on the SPIDIR website: http://www.spidir.org.uk How to Lead a Retreat or Quiet Day Saturday 17 th May, 10am to 4pm The day will include input on some of the essential aspects of leading a Retreat such as the place and value of Silence, Creativity, Supervision, personal accompaniment, worship, different Themed Retreats, places and spaces for prayer as well as looking at the Practical preparation of cost, team, and places where a retreat can take place in daily life Suggested donation: 30 Meditative Evening Prayer [including chants from Taize At 7.30pm starting on the 30 th April 2014 And every last Wednesday of the month [except July and August] Contact: Sisters of St. Andrew, The Welcome, 99 Belmont Hill, Lewisham London SE13 5DY welcome@sisters-of-st-andrew.com Tel: 0208-852-1662 Seeking Stillness At St James, Riddlesdown 2014 Come with me to a quiet place and get some rest. Mark 6:31 An opportunity for prayer and contemplation, creativity and rest in the beautiful building of St James church, Riddlesdown, near Purley Coffee, tea, and fruit juice are available. A donation towards expenses is invited. Eyes to See and Ears to Hear Thursday 15 th May 6.45pm -9pm Summer Stillness Saturday 14 th June 10am -1pm Living the Seasons 13 th September 10am 3pm For more information and to book for any of these please e-mail j.hoskins233@btinternet.com 3
London Spirituality Centre The Hours Paintings by Michael Cook 15th May - 20th June 2014 Godly Play and Dementia Exploring the role of playfulness in dementia care and Godly Play With John Killick The Church of St Edmund the King Lombard Street EC3V 9EA Exhibition open Monday to Friday 10am - 5pm A sequence of five paintings with imagery inspired by the monastic Hours, housed in the beautiful Church of St Edmund the King attributed to Sir Christopher Wren. The London Spirituality Centre offers a wide and varied programme of training events. For details look at their website on http://spiritualitycentre.org Unwrapping the gift of years Re-examining our attitudes towards older age Saturday June 7 th, 10am to 1pm In Trinity House, London SE1 1HW The righteous flourish like the palm tree And grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord They flourish in the courts of our God In old age they still produce fruit They are always green and full of sap Psalm 92:12-14 This event is organised by SAGE, the Southwark Spirituality and Age Group, set up to explore the spiritual, pastoral, ethical and missional aspects of the life of older people in the Diocese of Southwark. Saturday 12 July 10am to 3.45pm at Hinde St. Methodist Church, Thayer St, London W1U 2QJ Over the years Godly Play has developed in a range of contexts and practitioners around the world have discovered the richness of this playful approach to spiritual nurture. One notable example of this has been observed when people with dementia have experienced Godly Play. John Killick is known internationally for his pioneering poetry and creative work with people with dementia. He has written widely about this, reflecting on the nature of playfulness and creativity and the many ways lives can be enriched by these experiences. In this conference we bring together these two areas of activity. John will share the work he has undertaken alongside people with dementia, illustrated by personal accounts from individuals with dementia and those who care for them. The workshop sessions offer a choice of further opportunities to explore this, including Godly Play approaches, to enable deeper reflection on the transformative potential of playfulness in all our lives. For more details about SAGE or to book for Unwrapping the Gift of Years contact the Revd. Dr. Susan Clarke semclarke@btinternet.com Old men ought to be explorers Here or there does not matter We must be still and still moving Into another intensity For a further union, a deeper communion TS Eliot: East Coker Cost: 30 including lunch and refreshments For more details and to book download the booking form from: http://www.godlyplay.org.uk/wp- content/uploads/2014/03/godly-play-and- Dementia.pdf Or email: sheila.rogers@talktalk.net 4
We take time and love to develop... Once upon a time if you used a camera you d have to wait a good while to view the final image. The method was different from the one we re now used to in a digital age. The click of the camera button exposed the photographic film to light, forming a latent image, at this stage invisible to the eye. Further exposure to light at this stage would ruin the image, so the film had to be developed in a dark room. The process involved soaking the film in a tank of developing fluid. Slowly the hidden image would be revealed, and a negative created. Once washed, fixed and dried the image on the film was projected onto photographic paper and the image, once seen through the eye of the camera lens, was made visible in the print. Not being someone who could do all this myself, I remember the long wait between taking the photos and retrieving the finished product from the chemist. That was a long time past. It s so much more convenient and instant now. But I wonder whether the old ways are truer to our experience of development than the instant click and view. In looking with love God creates us, each one full of the beauty, individuality and lifegiving capacity that belongs to those made in the image and the likeness of the Creator. The image is there but latent, unseen by any eye but God s. It s going to take time, darkness, and soaking for this image to develop. Through the years of our life God labours patiently and faithfully to develop the image. It s not going to happen in an instant. We take time. The darkness envelops and protects us, though it might not seem that way. We would prefer being able to see our way and have control over what happens to us. But that way we would never have to trust. When we cannot see our way and when we have no means within ourselves to manage our experience, trust moves us into God, and God moves us into who we are We might think that light will take us there; but relying solely on our own understanding, or driven by the need to have things go our way we run the danger of becoming overexposed. We will never learn who we are this way. We develop in the dark room of trust in God. And there we need to soak. Prayer is not only the saying of words, or the making of requests; it is also resting our life, our times, our experience in God. Prayer is the movement of the heart more than the movement of our lips. Knowing we have no other way to be or to become, we let go all we are into God. Not once for all, but hour by hour and day by day. Slowly the image, always there but latent, begins to form. Not in seconds but in years; within our lifetime and beyond our lifetime in the time that is of God. To our own eyes the image may appear to be a negative. We become more, not less aware of our frailties, vulnerabilities and capacity for destructiveness. But now light is needed, not of our own understanding but of the love of God: the eye that first looked through the camera lens and that joys in what it beholds. In this light our own light is expressed. Perhaps we won t see it very much, though another might. We know that more development is needed. And it will take time, and much love. 5
To be a pilgrim When April with its sweet showers has pierced the drought of March to the root... Then people long to go on pilgrimages, and pilgrims to seek strange shores and distant shrines... [a modern translation of words from the Prologue of Chaucer s Canterbury Tales] Why not go on pilgrimage? You don t necessarily need a great deal of time or money. A single day and good shoes on your feet can be enough. What is a pilgrimage? A pilgrimage is an intentional journey to a place of spiritual significance. Both the journey and the place matter. The destination defines the way travelled, but what happens along the way is essential to the experience. The tradition of pilgrimage goes back to biblical times, and a number of the psalms have their origin in worship connected with pilgrim journeys to Jerusalem to celebrate major festivals such as Passover. What makes pilgrimage a significant faith experience? It is intentional: The one choice is to make the journey. Everything we experience moment by moment flows from this. In this sense pilgrimage mirrors Christian discipleship: we choose to follow Christ along the Way, though whatever life brings us. Journeying disturbs us out of set patterns and enables us to review our life and priorities Unanticipated events happen along the way; some we welcome, others we find challenging. We are brought into a more raw, honest place where we become able to see ourselves and to recognise our dependence on God. We learn from fellow travellers and from strangers we meet along the journey We regain a spirit of adventure We come to a place that has spiritual significance for us and our faith is rekindled Though we might start with a fixed idea about what the pilgrimage will bring, the experience is likely to surprise us: the outcome will not be as we imagined. Why make a pilgrimage? To express the desire for a deeper commitment to Christ To seek discernment: what does it mean for me at this point in my life to follow Christ? To have space to come to terms with a life changing event To re-view one s life and priorities in the light of relationship with God As an expression of repentance: that is, desiring to turn away from an old way of life that is deadening and destructive and to follow a new path that is creative and lifegiving. To escape convenient comforts that limit our capacity for life and love. In simple terms because the journey and/ or the destination draws us and who know what might happen along the way? To journey with others in friendship, mutual support, remaining open to learn and grow from new experiences A pilgrimage to where? A place of commonly recognised spiritual significance for example a historical site associated with prayer [e.g. Lesnes Abbey, Chaldon Church, Lullingstone Roman Villa, or Southwark Cathedral or, further afield: Canterbury Cathedral. A place of personal spiritual significance perhaps linked with your past story and with previous encounters with God. A pilgrimage for a church or group Though we walk an individual path of Christian discipleship through our particular life circumstances, we also travel with one another. We are people of The Way and a shared pilgrimage expresses our common dedication to seeking the Kingdom of God here on earth as in heaven. Travelling companions support one another and share their provisions. A journey made together can reinforce this sense of common identity and purpose. Friendships are made, life stories are shared and barriers are broken down. A pilgrimage also reminds us as church that we have not yet arrived. We are always, as a community open to move on in response to the leading of the Spirit. Changes will happen around us and we are challenged to respond to them. We are followers of the risen Jesus who is still on the move, actively seeking to teach, heal and reconcile. If you d like more input on the tradition of pilgrimage or the practicalities of planning a pilgrimage for a church group please get in touch: chris.chapman@southwark.anglican.org 6
Tools for Prayer Where lost life wakes Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. [John 20] Mary Magdalene stayed at Jesus side as he died on the cross, and was amongst those who helped lay him in a garden tomb. This morning she returns in darkness to find the tomb empty. She weeps. Until a stranger she has taken to be the gardener calls her by name... We associate Easter with joy. But it begins with tears. You may find on your Easter day that joy is not the first movement of your heart. Jesus has risen, but perhaps you are still left with unresolved pains, sorrows, and questions. Go with Mary into the garden. Wander along its paths Hear the gentle breeze as it stirs the trees Go with Mary into the garden Lay down there each of your sorrows like seeds in the ground. As yet the hard seed coat in unbroken; there seems no life within. But you are resting the seed in a garden. They will grow. Water from the earth and warmth of the sun will draw life forth. Rest all that has no answer, no healing, in this nurturing, creative earth. Here Jesus was laid, and tears were shed Here a woman comes, as the first bird sings a hymn for a morning yet to break. Here a woman comes, lost, until with a Mary her lost life wakes. 7