August QFC

Quartz Forest Church Sunday the 20th of August

We will gather as usual at 2pm outside the Crichton Memorial chapel. More info about what will be happening will hopefully be posted closer to the time, but it the experience is meant to be a little wild! Please dress for the weather.

Meanwhile, here is something to think about.

Spirituality, much like environment and society has been excessively commodified and domesticated often as a result of a colonial straightjacket. It has led to a dogmatic approach to faith ensnared by a regulatory impulse that loses the powerful connection with tradition, the living faith of the dead becoming imprisoned by traditionalism, the dead faith of the living. Rewilding the soul is about returning to a state of knowing and doing that refounds our story and leads us home to ourselves, to our place in the world and the creative work we are called to do.

Johnny Sertin, Pioneer Practice, getsidetracked.co 2021, p76

When does our experience of being part of the Christian community become “the living faith of the dead becoming imprisoned by traditionalism, the dead faith of the living” ?

Forest Church is in part a response to sitting in a service and feeling the overwhelming need to leave the building and get out. To walk somewhere, anywhere, but in that place at that time. A childish response to this urge would be to make aloud noise, to act in frustration that pours out before the words to frame it can be formed. A childlike response is to calmly accept that somethings are unlikely to change and seek the presence of God elsewhere. Actively seeking out Jesus in unexpected places and the transformation of the ordinary when coffee shops become thin spaces and parks become gardens where God still walks and provides fruit.

The experiences of those who have gathered to share this at Sensing Spirituality walks, or forest church meetings, are positive. They show that these activities help people return to “a state of knowing”. Perhaps by leaving the comfort of the mainstream Sunday morning experience we will rediscover lost treasures of Christian spirituality. Hopefully in doing this and reflecting on the experience we will discover the words to understand the frustration which started us walking.

As we walk we are finding new ways to relate with God, through reading, prayer, ritual, reflection and action. The Quartz experience of rediscovering #SensingSpirituality is being recorded on this website. We are far from alone though and so here is something else to think about from “Pioneer Practice“

the sacred bean eucharist – (after all when two or three are gathered in the UK they are more likely to share a mug of coffee and biscuit than bread and wine…)