Quartz at St Johns Dumfries
As we prepare for our journey through Lent here is some insight from our past
https://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2015/02/now-pure-and-holy-time-draws-near.html?m=1
If you were given the gift of being able to truly see in this life, what impact would that have on your daily living?
#SensingSpirituality outdoors
We will be meeting up as Forest Church this Sunday.
We meet outside the Crichton chapel at 2pm. We will greet each other in Christs peace, then take some time out to explore and practice #SensingSpirituality.
Please dress according to the weather, bring a folding chair if you are worried about standing up for too long. The Crichton isn’t a physically challenging landscape, and we usually end up sharing a snack and a drink together in the central cafe afterwards.
This Sunday will be a relaxed and informal event, but those who have taken part regularly have found the rythm of meeting and actively developing a spiritual discipline very helpful. This year we will also focus on a few big events, starting with Easter.
See you on Sunday, or get in touch for more details!
In some parts of the world absolute poverty is obvious, you see it on the streets as you walk. In Scotland poverty is a complicated issue, and not always visible.
This organisation lives out it’s faith through helping people overcome poverty related issues. An important first step is to become aware of what is actually happening.
https://capuk.org/news-and-blog/life-on-a-prepayment-meter
Reading from the SEC calendar for Feb the 16th 2023
The theme for the 6pm service last Sunday was forgiveness (12th of Feb).
Kate talked about the woman who poured perfume on Jesus feet, and the issues of shame, guilt, forgiveness, and Love which that story involves. It is often too easy to focus on a simple dynamic of a judge giving forgiveness to someone who confesses that they were wrong. We don’t know the details of the life of this woman, but the story of her prophetic act has spread throughout the world through the ages. Much like the scent of the perfume would have lingered in the house to remind the proud host of his need for forgiveness. The kingdom of heaven is close, and might smell more like freshly baked bread served with kindness that the most lavish religious ceremony in the land.
Then as a creative response people were given three options.
They could look at the newspapers, and pick something that stood out in need of prayer. By cutting it out and sticking it to a board they could intercede for forgiveness and healing to be shown.
Going deeper into the news stories they could cut the words of the story up and re-edit them into a prayer. Perhaps a lament for something wrong in the world, or to highlight awareness of good news by rewriting the article. The finished cards looked like ransom notes! A reminder that our ransom is paid.
The third response offered was for people to use sticky letters and stamps to make a card to keep or give. These cards had messages to remind ourselves, or others, that we are forgiven. Perhaps that is a better thing to wake up to than BBC headlines on your phone!
Contemporary services are held on the 2nd and 4th Sundays in the month at 6pm on St Johns. Please come and experience a blend of guitar led worship, prayer, bible readings, and a reflection on them that usually has opportunities for a creative response.
The experience of being challenged and moved by experiences including love, beauty, goodness, joy, compassion, injustice, evil, suffering, death.
The sentiment that humans are more than their physical elements.
Some experiences are special. Life is more than just it’s physical components. There can be moments where we sense something that can be described as sublime. Mystics experience transcendence, and then spend the rest of their lives trying to explain it in a way which avoids disrespecting the experience. Whatever metaphysics you use to understand these experiences, taking time out to become mindful of the otherness of where you are, the specialness of this particular moment, can help enrich your ordinary experience of everyday life.
The ability to make connections or to see potential patterns in one’s life which give it meaning.
Attitudes and feelings about what is really important, what really matters.
Experiences of awe, wonder and mystery about the natural world. Often also sensed when contemplating human achievement and for some divinity.
“Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I’d look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I’d just feel a prayer.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
There are many ways to pray, and prayer is inspired in many forms. This Sunday we will meet up outdoors and in the company of the trees, birds, and growing things we will explore praying with them. Before I describe the plan for meeting on Sunday in more detail, and especially for those reading this online who will be unable to join us, I have this YouTube clip.
The Hymn is Icelandic, and as one who smiths it particularly resonates with me. Whether surrounded by the green, or industry in a railway station, or in a building built to glorify the Divine, I suspect that the beginning of inheriting the richness of prayer is to stop and sense a changed quality of awareness.
If the above link doesn’t work, try this one.
We meet in Jesus name. Whether you consider yourself a close friend or are just curious, we meet in Christs peace. Peace be with you.
Share a sign of peace
“At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place. Listen, listen to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. Under the whole heaven he lets it loose, and his lightning to the corners of the earth. After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings[a] when his voice is heard. God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth’; and the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain, serves as a sign on everyone’s hand, so that all whom he has made may know it.[b]
Then the animals go into their lairs and remain in their dens. From its chamber comes the whirlwind and cold from the scattering winds. By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. They turn round and round by his guidance to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen …
Job 37 1- 13 NRSV
7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because[a] the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister abides in the light, and in such a person[b] there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates a brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.
1 John 2:7-11
Trees drink through deep roots and hidden networks, then cast their seeds widely on the wind and to the ground. We slow down in winter, and tend to burrow in warm places. Even the cold frost plays it’s part in bringing about a release from dormancy though when the time is right for seeds to germinate*.
With the firmness of the trees and the trust of creatures, we look to you, Creator of life, to sustain and keep us.
Today we are focusing on prayer. Try working with one of the following, or listen and respond as you feel led.
Simply take a moment to stand and sense, and be aware of sensing.
Start by becoming aware of your feet on the ground, the air surrounding you and the wind in your hair.
Listen.
Allow your awareness to stretch out to the furthest thing you can hear, or see.
Then draw your attention back slowly to your body and what surrounds it.
What were you aware of, what response does this invite?
Find a tree to stand next to, or lean against. Contemplate the ways in which trees draw nutrients up from the ground and produce leaves, and transform CO2 with light into chemical energy and water. This then allows roots to grow.
As you lean on the tree with your feet on earth and your head in heaven, what are you inspired to “Carry up” to heaven? What does your heart desire to bring down into earth?
Take time to intercede, aware of both the bitter and the sweet.
Look for signs of nourishment and growth
Great Light, we are aware of the darkness of this season, but we are also aware the the natural light will increase from here on. Help us to walk in your ways so that we can play our p[art in righteous living, as you work within us to increase the light to its full brightness. Amen
David Cole, The Celtic Year, p39
Explore the broken things which surround you.
We are surrounded by temporary things, and even human creations that impress us by their antiquity are fleeting moments in geological terms. But even broken things bring new life.
Stone broken from bedrock become buildings, organic matter rots down to enrich the soil.
Creator of light and life, you stepped into the world as one of us. your incarnation made you physically one with the world which you created. Through your humanity and divinity you reconciled all creation back to you. May I live a life which reflects this understanding of total reconciliation. Amen
David Cole, The Celtic Year, p37
We gather together again. Perhaps a song, or chant, will be relevant. If anyone has been inspired with something that will be of benefit to the gathering, this is a time to share it.
May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.
Now and evermore,
Amen
We often end up at the central café (occasionally we have a picnic or use a Kelly kettle instead). This is an opportunity to share refreshment and chat about our experiences.
