STOP! ...in the name of God

Annual quiet day - 20 -22 June 2008

• explore the place silence and stillness can play in your life by taking part in a quiet day near you
   
• can you help/prompt your church to promote an event?
   
• where do people need a time/place of stillness and quiet- shopping centres, sports centres, workplaces (see here)?

For an information pack on how to organise a Quiet Day, send £2.50 to the address at left (cheques payable to Retreat Association) (or £5.00 for airmail postage outside Europe; please note that we can only accept payment in sterling - GB pounds).

Click here for large-print address information

Click here for list of contents of Information Pack

Click here to buy an information pack online

Since the Retreat Association suggested setting aside the third Saturday in June each year as an annual Quiet Day, the idea has grown. In towns, cities and villages around the UK groups of Christians from many denominations gather together to hold a variety of Quiet Days. Many of these days are organised by Councils of Churches and are open to all comers.

Each event is different, but all will have the same purpose - to help people, particularly those for whom this is a new experience, appreciate the opportunity to be still and enjoy the benefits that stillness brings. In quietness people can become aware of the presence of God in their lives.

Quiet in the workplace

This year we are particularly encouraging people on the Friday to find a way to Stop! in the name of God in the workplace. We would encourage those working as industrial chaplains, chaplains in shopping malls, airports, schools, colleges and hospitals; together with those responsible for City and Town Centre churches to think about how they might approach this.

Amidst the noise and pace of workers, shoppers, taxis, tourists, beggars, road works, buses, police sirens, speeding ambulances etc. one can often still hear the chime of a church clock or tolling bell. Could there be here a call to another way of being in the midst of all the rushing energy of contemporary city living?

Some suggestions might be:-

• provide an early morning prayer space with a focus and a lighted candle to encourage a different beginning to the day
• create a series of prayer stations around the church to reflect on key features of the locality eg. the local population, main stores or businesses, places of historical interest, leisure opportunities etc.
• have a led meditation during lunch time or have contemplative music playing
• invite local shops and businesses to provide a quiet space where employees 'can come apart for a little while'
• offer an open day in the chaplaincy in which a variety of ways of praying can be explored and/or a continual praying presence is observed.

The possibilities are endless and we would encourage you to risk and dare to enable people to reach out to what they long to find and which is so elusive in the daily round of busy life.

It is a very special ministry to help people to find their 'thin place' connection with the Divine in the ordinary and everyday.

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