Virtual Pilgrimage 

 

This workshop is about virtual pilgrimage through contemplation of the visual art. As a late medieval devotional practice that promised spiritual riches without leaving home, this will be an exercise in slow looking and communal experience. We will use five beautiful altarpieces from St Catherine’s Convent in Augsburg which allowed the sisters to journey beyond convent walls. No prior knowledge is required.  

Joanne Anderson

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Labyrinths, creative journeys to God 

 

Join us for a meaningful opportunity to learn about labyrinths. Walk a canvas labyrinth and explore finger labyrinths that draw us closer to the Divine. Labyrinths help us experience deeper connection with ourselves and God; they are pilgrimages of faith and discovery. They invite creative prayer and reflection on our hopes and struggles. For over 1,700 years, Christians have used labyrinths as sacred spaces for reflection and spiritual connection as a way of pilgrimage.  

Jim Bailey 

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A Garden for the Soul 

 

This workshop will explore the relationship between gardening, imagination and hope. Gardens speak life, in all its surprising moods and seasons. They tell tales of growth that are familiar, yet fresh, so that we never tire of them. We hear the echo of our own endings and beginnings. They frustrate us by not wholly giving way to our efforts to impose control, but also seed our days with hope.

Christopher Chapman

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Singing from our Silence

 

Music is central to human life. It is one of the most ancient of acts of worship, perhaps –according to Iain McGilchrist – even coming before spoken language. The relationship between making music and listening. Between music and silence. We will share the place of music in our lives and the effect it has on us, both in listening and playing/singing. We will explore the place of music in wellbeing and in our faith: being at ease within ourselves, with others and the whole of creation. Open to Spirit. At peace, in tune, in harmony. The workshop will include some listening and some singing together.

Jennifer Kavanagh 

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Sounding the Depths, Scaling the Heights, and Beating a Path to our Heart: Music and Spirituality

 

Whether it be via Mozart, Miles Davies or Missy Elliott many of us find that God comes sailing into our lives on waves of sound. Why does music resonate with our spirit? A chance to explore the spiritual power of the sonata, the pop song and the saxophone solo.

Glen Marshall

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‘Life Remains a Blessing’: WH Auden, poetry and God 

 

WH Auden is not always recognised as a poet of Christian faith. However, he returned to the Christian way in midlife and Christianity lies deep in the heart of his poems. We will explore some of Auden’s work, as well as pursue the perception that he is a poet very much for our time – for a variety of reasons. You need no previous knowledge of Auden’s work to participate in this workshop.

Mark Oakley 

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Creative encounters… 

 

So far from the Garden in Eden things are far from perfect – thorns cover the earth. Our relationship with each other and with God is no longer what the Creator intended. Yet still our Father God longs for us to ‘speak’ with him through thoughts and words – in silence and noise – in stillness and activity. Together we’ll reflect on our personal relationship with our Father God, without judgment, knowing we’re all understood and loved for who we are. Then we’ll explore how we might develop our relationship with God in creative ways.

Jacqui Parkinson 

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The Writing Way 

 

Based on material from Andrew’s book The Quiet Path: contemplative practices for daily life, this practical workshop will offer some accessible approaches to writing, which can become a space of creative encounter: prayer, contemplation, discernment and understanding. Please bring writing materials, but no previous experience is necessary.

Andrew Rudd 

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Curating Living Liturgy 

 

Taking our inspiration from the story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well to provide an expansive understanding of worship, we will explore how we can shape inclusive, creative and participative liturgies today. We will demonstrate how the use of Scripture, song, prayer and tangible elements such as food and our surroundings can be blended together to facilitate spirit-led, imaginative and engaging expressions of worship wherever we are.

Gaynor & Simon Shaw 

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Icons – History, Process and Meaning

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Icons are for many an aid to prayer and assist in understanding the Divine. They date from the dawn of Christianity and are produced today in the same way using the same techniques as a thousand years ago. The workshop will consider what makes an image an icon and a brief history of iconography. The stages in the production of an icon are in many ways a theological process with each step itself having meaning. From this it becomes clear that everything in an icon has meaning including materials, colour and geometry in addition to the image itself. We will consider how to look at an icon to reveal that meaning, using the Retreat Association Icon of Christ and the Samaritan Woman as an example.

David Wright