Categories: uncategorized
Date: 09 May 2007 11:47:03
I've just added a link to here in my Ship of Fools sig, as I don't like our website much at the moment. We are, as most people are these days, in the process of re-doing it, but of course it's always a longer process than you'd like to think...
Still, this means I can use this space to talk about the exiting stuff that's happening...like the "C21 Spirituality" courses running this year.
We've had one already (the first course I attended as a member of community, in fact) which was great, and got a lot of people talking. One lass (who had come from a very...erm... particular type of church) had expected a course on Spirituality for Ambivilent Christians to be about how not to be ambivilent any more. Fortunately, she enjoyed the chance to explore further, and not be told the answers, so didn't want her money back!
Upcoming, we've got Jonathan Bartley and Stuart Murray at the end of this month (30 May-3 June), looking at "Post Christendom" - or "how will Christians cope in a world where they aren't in charge any more" (my subtitle!), particularly for those of us who are not really part of "the Church" in its formal sense - the structure and rhetoric, and all the associated baggage...
And then at the end of June (29 June - 1 July) we've Gordon Lynch talking about "The New Spirituality", progressive faith across and beyond different religious traditions. It's looking to be focused on interconnectedness (bit of a theme here, see the next event) and social justice and sustainability.
And in July, we've a festival of interconnectedness (see the links here, people - Patterns and Connections, 23-28 July...nice little warm-up for Greenbelt?) , and our keynote speaker is Satish Kumar! I've already had the head of the Craven Council Arts Board go all fangirl at me on discovering this, so although I knew he was very renowned in his field, I'm only just discovering how greatly his work is esteemed. Other stuff : workshops, including experimental theatre, willow working, bush cooking and circle dancing, as well as local stalls, music and walking events.
Incidentally, if any of you know of any decent and sympathetic minded musicians or ather performers who might be interested in small slots (preferably for board and fame, but we do have a little budget!), please let me know - with a festival, there are always "bits" to fill up...
OK, adverts over. Seriously, I'm excited about all of these events, and would love to see as many people as possible taking advantage of these opportunities (and the bit about the musicians is important too...)
In other news...it's very grey at the moment - almost like last week burnt up all the good weather...and we've lost one of our summer helpers, so we're a little short staffed (anyone fancy coming to be part of community for a few months?), so I can't claim all is rosy in the garden.
But on the other hand, a short term community member from a couple of years ago has just come back to visit, help out as a working guest and practice his English (he's from the Netherlands), so it can't be all bad...