Community Gossip

Gossip? In Old English, a “godsibb” was a godmother or godfather, from “god” plus “sib,” meaning “relative” (related to our modern “sibling”). It was later used to refer to companions in childbirth – people from the community who were there in difficult and celebratory times.

Here you'll find a list of things we've been doing/thinking/reading.

If God is Love then maybe...

Ali holds his leaf An evening community meal in our poetry cycle we explored our hopes in God through poetry. Conversations were shared, and the output ranged from beautiful to barmy!

If God is Love then maybe...

My four grandchildren will grow and grow and reach their full potential with great joy
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Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 10:13pm

Chapel Painting

IMG_1574 Had a fun time on Saturday painting Bethlehem Chapel. Worked through the day fueled by tea, biscuits and enthusiasm. Thanks everyone. Sister Jean was really appreciative!
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Monday, October 4, 2010 - 3:36pm

Beatitude Prayers

Prayers we've written for the Chalgrove Taize service, 5:30pm, Sun 26th Sept 2010. 1.  Blessed are the poor in spirit or blessed are those who realise their need. When we think we are strong are we really strong?  Sometimes at our lowest we confront our vulnerability and the vulnerability of others is revealed to us.  There can be a clarity that is lacking when all is going well and we are being carried along by a busy life.
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Friday, September 24, 2010 - 9:55am

Poetry cycle

mayBe outsider improvisation 13 This cycle we're planning to use poetry and poems as the focus of our discussions, always aiming to build each other up in faith, and support each other in creating community.

Week 1

thurs 16th sept Cara hosting - bring your favourite Peoms!
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Monday, September 13, 2010 - 9:04pm

Thurs 5th Aug: The silent land

IMG_1458 This Thursday we ate our meal in silence before moving onto our night prayer. It was a tranquil and reflective experience. So amazing watching how peaceful the children could be. Thanks to everyone for going along with it. Here are some comments from the evening...
  • in peace we are allowed to be
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Friday, August 6, 2010 - 2:25pm

Sun 1st Aug: The Breath of God

praying through bubbles

...

Then the lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7

...

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Sunday, August 1, 2010 - 7:22pm

A closing blessing...

Make space To hear an ancient rhythm Learn a well loved dance Sing a cherished song Make space Discover a wisdom filled story Entertain generation old tales Illuminate neglected images. Make space Explore the mysterious familiar Study the hazel nut lines Stare in disbelief at natures intricacy Make space
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Sunday, August 1, 2010 - 7:13pm

Monasticism recycled, revamped, respected.

Candles This seven-week cycle we're looking at various monastic practices. How can they shape us as a very different type of community? Throughout the cycle we'll be keeping Saturdays free for Greenbelt preparation.

Week 1

Thurs 22 July. Kate/Andrea hosting community meal in Thame. Resource by Cara.
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Friday, July 16, 2010 - 12:13am

Greenbelt Ideas

GB Saturday thinking This is my attempt to summarise our Greenbelt conversations on Thursday and Saturday. Please let me know if i've missed anything you felt I should have included! The bible readings we looked at were Genesis 16, Genesis 21 and Mark 5:1-20

Reflections

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    Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - 9:27pm
    Photo of us at Greenbelt

    Greenbelt - creative collaborative challenge

    Greenbelt is on the horizon and we had a lively creative discussion about our contribution to the New Forms worship. Abi kept great notes for Saturday's gathering to build on, Ezra + Niamh entertained the fish + Annabel fed us all with scrumptious quiche + cake. It was also great to have some new faces. Roll on Greenbelt - always so special for us.

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    Monday, June 28, 2010 - 8:19pm

    Tea with the nuns!

    mugs_from_raw mayBe shared cake + conversation with the community of All Saints Convent who generously allow us to use Bethlehem Chapel for our worship gatherings from time to time.
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    Monday, June 28, 2010 - 8:12pm

    Conflict? cycle

    Ascention 2 Conflict affects us in many different ways, sometimes from the outside from the inside. What can we learn from our experiences?

    Week 1

    Thursday 3 June - Emma & John hosting. Ginny to write resource? Sunday 6 June 3pm - Tea at All Saints Convent with Vespers at 4:30.

    Week 2

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    Monday, May 24, 2010 - 12:06pm

    After Easter

    Week 1

    Thursday 15th April : Hosted by Ginny, facilitator Andrea Saturday 17th: No meeting today Sunday 18th: The Mish 10:30am, facilitator Andrea

    Week 2

    Thursday 22nd April: Hosted by Toby, Theme: doubting Thomas, Cara resource writing. Saturday 24th: The Mish 10am, hosted by Tracey, Rich & Cara. Sunday 25th: 2pm Bury Knowle, facilitator needed. (Fr Jonathan asked but can't preside that day)

    Week 3

    Thursday 29th April Hosters, Rich & Tracey, theme Peter reinstated, resource Andrea Saturday 1st May: The Mish 10am, hosted by Ginny
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    Monday, April 12, 2010 - 11:00am

    using our imagination and fantasy in prayer

    The UnlovedAs a now grown-up fantasy-role-player it was with some trepidation that I offered a week on using fantasy in prayer to mayBe.  Perhaps they would feel the need to cast me out of the group...  Perhaps they would all just laugh or, worse still, just not get it...
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    Monday, March 29, 2010 - 8:45pm

    Growing Spirituality

    At our last community conversation we discussed prayer and spirituality. How can we be a community with a glowing spiritual centre? How can we encourage prayer at our gatherings and also in our daily lives? It would be good to have some practical ideas on this. Email your ideas and suggestions and we can post them here. Here are some ideas to start with....
    • A night prayer for a cycle: Write a night prayer to end our Thursdays. This prayer could change with each cycle. (If we don't write a prayer we could use some published Celtic night prayers or something similar)
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      Monday, March 29, 2010 - 2:07pm

      Next Cycle Ideas

      What should the theme of our next cycle be? Your ideas below!
      • The Holy Spirit - Ending with Pentecost
      • Trinity - For Trinity Sunday
      • Emotions - Anger, Happiness, Fear etc...
      • Eternal Life or Time - with “time” for prayer, expressions of thought about eternal life in ways other than talking!

      Possible Cycle breakdown...

      1) Ideas about time/eternity – Philosophical ideas (linear/ circular)

      2) Ideas about time/eternity – Time and the mind

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      Monday, March 29, 2010 - 1:47pm

      South Park: 28th Feb 10

      The Unloved Some amazing effort was made on Sunday to get to the mayBe gathering. The wind was cold and the rain bitter. South Park was guarded by a moat of mud. Niamh and Ezra took shelter double decker style in the push chair. Poor Guy had a tumble in a deep trench by the gate. We all made efforts to clean him down.
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      Monday, March 1, 2010 - 2:30pm

      Prayer Discussion

      Some themes we talked about on Thurs 25 Mar 2010 at Cara's:
      • Prayer about listening
      • Public prayer can be abused to express an opinion
      • What is prayer life anyway?
      • Does it change anything? As humans are we just desperate to control the world around us?
      • Expressing feelings to God important
      • Do we think too much about it? Should we just do it?
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      Friday, February 26, 2010 - 12:53am

      Prayer cycle

      The mayBe gameThis cycle we're looking at prayer, the breath of our community life. And it's Lent and then Easter! We're encouraging each other to take up a resistance for Lent, and to start and end our days using the new prayer mat, knowing that we pray in community.

      Week 1

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      Monday, February 15, 2010 - 9:55pm

      Pray-as-you-go

      When we had the community meal at our place and were talking about prayer, I told you about the daily prayer I use from the Jesuits which you can download for your ipod - it's called 'pray as you go'. It is about 10min long and uses music, a scripture reading, some thoughts to contemplate and some time for prayer. I like it lot, it's a good and easy way to incorporate some sort of prayer into your daily life! So here is the link: http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/
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      Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:37am

      Bethlehem Chapel - eucharist with Sister Margaret Anne

      It was wonderful to gather together in Bethlehem Chapel again (it's like a womb to us) and a real privilege to welcome Rev Sister Margaret Anne from All Saints Convent to celebrate the eucharist with us for the first time.  The big turn-out reflected our hunger for the bread and wine, body and blood of Jesus - and it was a holy nourishing after a period of fasting.  Toby provided a great soundscape, Chris helped us meditate on St Paul's words about love using the Jesus prayer, and Andrea brought a prayer-provoking image of Christ for us to focus on.
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      Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - 8:07pm

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