mayBe - our story

mayBee!

admin — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

mayBee!

We gathered in Florence Park as the weather signalled the turning seasons - it was dry on arrival and very wet as soon as we started worshipping huddled under the bandstand. We celebrated Creation Time (a new church season to extend harvest to a wider reflection on our relationship with the natural world), making links to the Global Strike Climate Protest which some members had taken part in last Friday. Extinction Rebellion use the bee as one of their symbols - dramatic declines in bee numbers threaten us all. We extended Jesus’ invitation to consider the wild flowers and birds to consider the bees, and pooled our knowledge of these amazing creatures, their waggle-dances, decision-making processes, and communal work to ensure resources for all. We reflected that the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey has to mean an abundance of bees (the super pollinators) - and our dependence on them to sustain our food supplies. And of course we tasted honey and use our finger prints to create our own bee colony.

Monday, September 23, 2019 - 12:00am

Photos:

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mayBe book club

admin — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 22:48:04 +0000

mayBe book club

Facilitated by Tilly, Some of us have been meeting each month to explore the Enneagram together.

We have worked our way through a book, agreeing to read a few chapters between each meeting, with some supplementing this with podcasts, webs searches or other books on the subject. We gather together to share our thoughts, and try to discover kernels of truth that speak to us, challenge us, and need further chewing over.

We are seeing if the Enneagram, in its ancient wisdom and current practices, can help us understand our selves, each other, and our need of God. We have chosen a book that connects the Enneagram to contemplative prayer practices of silence, stillness and solitude - and we combine talking about the ideas with trying the practices.

At its least helpful, we have found the Enneagram overly complicated, and we have resisted being ‘boxed’ into types. At its most helpful we have found the Enneagram profoundly insightful, illuminating patterns of behaviour that sabotage our relationship with ourselves, with others and with God, and offering ways to embrace our particular gifts and life-stances as we deepen our honest engagement with who we are in Christ and how we can together be people of the Way.

This has been a warm-up for our ‘Retreat’ weekend at the start of Advent when Liz West, an Enneagram practitioner, will be joining us. Having finished the book, we are now trying to engage more with the contemplative practices together.

Sam

Picture from pinterest seems to be originally from integrative enneagram. Please contact us if it's not OK to use this image in this way.

Monday, August 5, 2019 - 10:48pm

Photos:

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German visitors

admin — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

German visitors

We had a surprise email from some German ecumenical rural church leaders, who were coming to a fresh expressions conference at CMS, asking if they could visit. We gathered in Florence Park for worship and a picnic, so they could find out more about our life together. We always feel complete frauds when people want to know about how we ‘do’ church!! We kind of make it up as we go along, learning from experience what seems to work and what doesn’t, gratefully receiving whatever anyone is able to offer into our life. As always it was very enriching to be joined by others, and to hear ourselves tell our story. Always reassuring when a few of us highlight the same things!!

We spent time entering into the feeding of the 5,000, considering who are the ‘crowds’ in our lives, and what small gifts (fish) and efforts (bread) we have to offer that Christ might be able to multiple to more than enough.

The challenge of believing in abundance in a world dominated by ‘scarcity’ and the need to hoard/protect rather than give.

Our visitors kindly left gifts to bless our worship, and an abundance of chocolate which we will share next time we gather!

Sunday, July 14, 2019 - 12:00am

Photos:

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Camping June 2019

admin — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 07:30:01 +0000

Camping June 2019

We met for our annual camping weekend at Bridge House just outside of Shillingford 14 - 16 June. We had a great turnout and some descent weather. Bridge House is part of the Northumbira Community and they have built a tiny chapel from an old shed where we joined them for some of their regular prayers, summoned by a bell. I love the chapel, it has only a few windows so it's dark and coloured by candles and the light that comes through the single stained glass window. It's a hidden place, a place of safety. The wood is softened by age and prayer. It's a holy place, a place set-aside for seeking and being aware of God's presence. This year they also had an old barn available for use too, which we used for various craft activities.

The site also has a huge labyrinth with willow walls, well weathered, worn and wilded. It proved a good place for quiet contemplation and screaming games of hide and seek!

Our theme was Pentecost (a week late) and Sam led us in some worship, prayer and colourful craft activities (see photos!) to help all ages engage with this powerful, mysterious and challenging part of our story of God. We imagined Jesus' friends huddled away in a locked room as we blended our own recollections of the story with bible readings. We didn't have to imagine the sound of great winds as the barn was open sided so we could already hear the surrounding susurrous. We thought about how the holy spirit enabled and gave courage to those present with gifts, like being able to communicate God's love to others, and like not being scared of persecution by Roman occupiers, the crowds who just called for Jesus' crucifixion, or when it appears there is a tongue of flame reaching for your head!

We also talked about the body of Christ; how we in our diversity make up the body of Christ; how every part of a body is different but essential; how if one part of the body hurts the whole body hurts; how if one of us has something to celebrate then we all celebrate. We did a contemplative exercise/prayer about Christ has no body on earth but ours, using Teresa of Avila's words:

Christ has no body now but yours.

No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world.

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.

Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Teresa of Avila

We did a couple of bat walks along the river and Ariane, who had her bat detector with her, was able to tell us of the 4-5 different species that we saw. Interesting that bats don't fly that fast, and amazing how small and large they can be. We also enjoyed our walk down to the Waterfront café/bar and the public paddling pool which to my mind shrinks every year as my children get bigger. The kids had some great games of football and exploration amongst the wilds.

Sadly I did not see the raven this year, an enormous bird that has commanded the area every year we've been there. We once saw it steal a chicken's egg, flying off with the whole egg in its beak. But the dawn chorus was as loud as ever, as was the squabble between the crows and the red kite who had dared to enter their territory to pick up a dead rabit!

On Saturday night we built a bonfire. The circle around it shrank slowly as the night went on, children went to bed and the temperature dropped. We made plans again for how to “do“ mayBe in the rest of the year; we felt it would be good to re-establish our rhythm.

Sunday, June 23, 2019 - 7:30am

Photos:

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