BeachcomberFX

Category: Sunday@thePub

  • Cynicism

    Cynicism

    Here is this weeks blog! hope you enjoy it. We are meeting at the Enigma Tap on Sunday at 7:30pm see you all then.

    Claire and I have recently got an allotment. During half-term we started to clear it off and we had many of our neighbouring allotmenteers pop around to introduce themselves. All of them advised us to: “take our time…don’t rush things…divvent sicken yersens”. But, under their tentative welcomes and gruff advice I sensed a weary cynicism. They all told us the story of our plot, and it was a story of people who started, but didn’t finish. Full of good intention, but no sticking power; big ideas, but little tenacity. 

    As this was happening, we had just come back from our weekend away, and as part of our story telling sessions I was stuck by the fact that some people had joined after having some doubts about the group (in fact, some people still expressed doubts). IS this really the new thing we need, or should we invest in traditional church? Does what we do help to answer our questions or disrupt our answers. 

    Certainly, my own experience has seen many people respond to change and newness with the cry: I’ve seen it all before…new things come and go…we may as well just stay the same. And, to be honest as I get a bit old I can understand what they’re saying. 

    So, my question is: Is it healthy to hold some cynicism about change and new ventures?

    I want us think about 3 stories from Jesus’ life. Firstly, we have the old chestnuts Anna and Simeon (Luke 2). They’re waiting for the new thing to appear. They are hoping it’ll come during their lifetime, and when it does, they are open to seeing it and rejoicing in it.

    Secondly, Nicodemus in John 3. He goes in the night to see Jesus, which probably implies he’s a bit embarrassed to be going to check out what Jesus is about (and a not-so-subtle literary device for John to show light and dark). He’s open to what Jesus is saying while being sceptical at first. 

    Lastly, grumbling pharisees (Luke 5 & 15) just don’t like what Jesus is up to, all this eating and drinking with sinners is winding them up. So, they tend to be hanging around outsider or at the edge of the party muttering and grumbling.

    A bit on-the-nose I know but I think it’s safe to say  – “plus ça change”. Things have always been this way. Some people love change, and some people are cynical of it. But, again, is a little cynicism a good thing? Is it just being realistic? Or should we accept the rest of the quote “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” the more thing change, the more they stay the same.

    Questions:

    What’s your favourite downbeat character from literature or film i.e. Moaning Myrtle, Eeyore, or Marvin the paranoid android etc.?

    Who are the most cynical people in the Bible? What might this tell us about cynicism?

    What the biggest change you’ve seen in your lifetime?

    Are you: Pessimistic or Optimistic? Questioning or see how it goes? A change maker/ a change adopter/ a change cynic/ a change resistor? Glass half empty/ Glass half full/ Glass empty/ Glass broken on the floor/ or glass scourged by the fire of brutal reality and melded into an indistinguishable lump?

    Is cynicism healthy?

    Is there a spectrum of cynicism? Where would it start and end, and what points are along the way?

    Where does hope fit in?

    What can we do to make sure we have a good balance in our questioning of new things?

  • Pubs!

    Pubs!

    Hi folks, hope you are doing ok! This week we are meeting in the Quarry from 7.30, it would be great t see you if you are able. This weeks blog is written for us by Karen. 

    In 2018 the Mirror reported on research into pub conversations. It found that pub chat is at its absolute best after precisely 3.3 alcoholic drinks and that the top 10 most common topics discussed in UK pubs are as follows:

    1.      Old memories

    2.      Something completely random

    3.      TV shows

    4.      Funny stories

    5.      Gossip

    6.      The news

    7.      Films

    8.      Music

    9.      Telling jokes

    10.    Football

     

    Some questions for you:

    1.      Which is your favourite pub of all time?

    2.      What did you used to drink that you don’t anymore?

    3.      How many of these top 10 have you discussed in the pub?

    4.      How does alcohol affect you in discussions?

    5.      What is your take on Methodists meeting in a pub?

    6.      What would be in your top 10 and  Where would faith feature? 

    7.      How do we get God ‘into’ the pub?

    Thanks

    Karen

    Image: lightstock_138754_full_david.jpg

  • Connection

    Connection

    Hi folks, i hope you are doing ok, we are back to our regular gatherings this Sunday night, meeting at the Tavern and Galley, 71 The Links, Whitley Bay NE26 1UE from 7.30 We hope you can join us.

     

    At our recent weekend away we spent time trying to build the Beachcomber story and what that community in different ways means to us. On Friday we talked about where we had physically come from and the various places we had lived in-between in order to be here in the North East, Some of us live a long way from the North East now, but we try to keep connected, we have become a dispersed community.

    On Saturday we went into the woods, the trees were our hosts, we stopped, looked, wandered and wondered. We were encouraged to go slowly… to take our time, we talked about how trees connect and feed each other even when they appear to have died.

    Later in the day we shared a little about how each of us had come to be part of Beachcomber. We got to share what each person means to the community and remembered those who weren’t with us this. We were thankful for each person that is and has been part of our community over the years. 

    On Sunday we played with lego and made models that reflected on the various elements of Beachcomber and how we connect with them (Scavenger, Wanderer, Gatherer, Collector) and with other aspects of our lives.

    If we go back to the trees again, I was struck by the connectedness of nature, root systems intertwining with and at places connecting with each other to keep another tree alive. Its amazing that trees don’t crowd each other out so to speak. I was struck by the moss as it creeps along providing nutrients and shelter. 

    Over the years Beachcomber has experienced many times of connectedness, and as I do more work in the community I see this sense of connection in many places. 

    But what I am seeing more and more is how connection is enhanced the more we are open and honest with each other… In doing some thinking about this I came across these words by Maria Popov, of the Marginalian blog I subscribe to, she says… 

    “We are each born with a wilderness of possibility within us. Who we become depends on how we tend to our inner garden — what qualities of character and spirit we cultivate to come abloom, what follies we weed out, how much courage we grow to turn away from the root-rot of cynicism and toward the sunshine of life in all its forms: wonder, kindness, openhearted vulnerability”. 

    She mentions this as she refers to Nick Cave and his two pillars of a meaningful life… which again I think are helpful as we ponder connection. He talks about Humility and says: 

    Humility amounts to an understanding that the world is not divided into good and bad people, but rather it is made up of all manner of individuals, each broken in their own way, each caught up in the common human struggle and each having the capacity to do both terrible and beautiful things. If we truly comprehend and acknowledge that we are all imperfect creatures, we find that we become more tolerant and accepting of others’ shortcomings and the world appears less dissonant, less isolating, less threatening.

    And the other phrase he uses is about curiosity, he says: 

    If we look with curiosity at people who do not share our values, they become interesting rather than threatening. As I’ve grown older I’ve learnt that the world and the people in it are surprisingly interesting, and that the more you look and listen, the more interesting they become. Cultivating a questioning mind, of which conversation is the chief instrument, enriches our relationship with the world. Having a conversation with someone I may disagree with is, I have come to find, a great, life embracing pleasure.

    Now in the midst of all this and I finish with this on purpose is that we are currently in the season of lent, leading up to the celebration of Easter. Lent is a time for us to examine ourselves. I believe Jesus wants each of us to be better human beings, to be more loving, more kind, more peaceful… I think lent asks us to be more connected, connected with ourselves and with those around us and with nature its self.

     

    Some questions. 

    Where is the strangest place you have lived? 

    In which places do you find deep connections?  

    What movie or series comes to mind when you think about connectedness? 

    What bible stories come to mind when you think about connection?

    What does connectedness look like for God/the divine? 

    How could connectedness make a difference in the world?

    What opportunities of connection come to mind that could help you engage with the world around you? 

     

    Peace Rob

     

    Photos David

  • Woodland wondering…

    Woodland wondering…

    Hi folks, i hope you are doing ok… This weekend is our weekend away so we won’t be meeting on Sunday night.
    As part of our weekend away we are going to be doing a woodland walk, which Pete has organised for us… He has written a preamble for us, which I think those of you who aren’t coming will find interesting! Let us know your thoughts…
    This year for our Saturday walk at Saughy Rigg we are going to do something a little different. As part of that walk we have received an invite to share time together with the community of trees which make up Briarbanks Wood so they can share some startling secrets with us. More about that on Saturday. In the meantime can you manage to read the accompanying blog before then and be able to recognise the main species by their barks (oak, ash, beach and hazel). Trust this is ok with you.
    I guarantee that a woodland walk will never be the same
    When you walk into a wood what do you see?
    Do you see individual trees battling for space and light, living in intense competition with each other where only the fittest and biggest will survive, or do you see a close community where different species co-exist, characterised by the support and sharing which comes from interdependent living?
    There are places where the former is reality, like tropical rain forests or where a ‘mother tree’ with a large canopy is suddenly uprooted, creating a massive increase in light and space for those left. In Western European forests however, the latter is largely true, especially in the deciduous forests of beach, ash and oak, very common in the UK and the dominant species in Briarbanks Wood, which we will be exploring during our walk. Put simply there is great benefit in living as a community, made possible through a gigantic network involving the roots of trees and soil fungi which act as routes for transmitting information and transporting water and plant food. The role played by fungi is vital. There are hundreds of fungi in a forest and not all of them are ‘good’ fungi, indeed many are poisonous to trees. Mycorrhizal fungi are especially ‘good’, covering and penetrating the roots with soft hairs and connecting them together, massively extending the surface area of roots for any one tree. Though scientists are still discovering how the system works precisely, it is known that electronic impulses transfer information, similar to that in an internet network- albeit an exceedingly slow one. This comes at a price, with the fungi taking some 30% of the available sugar and carbohydrates. In return the fungi enable the tree to not only suck up considerably more water and nutrient and act as routers in the communication/ transfer network but also offer ‘medical services’ such as help in warding off attacks by insects and toxic fungi and support in times of illness and distress. Trees also communicate using chemical signals and these can also be passed through the network or sent in other ways eg scent carried by the wind
    Put simply, a wood is a group of trees. It has long been recognised that there are benefits in togetherness – things like protection from wind, increased humidity / temperature. However, we now know that a wood is not merely a group of trees but a vibrant interdependent community in which individual trees are bound together by a fungal/ root network which acts as a communication highway and distribution network, through which they are able to support and encourage each other. Using this network trees can send out distress signals and receive help, operating like a social security system in which the strong support the weak. Put simply; In the UK some people earn vast sums of money, others not enough to make ends meet, so we redistribute income to give some degree of equalisation. It is the same in a wood. Some trees have prime positions with better soil and light conditions, others very marginal conditions, so there is a very unequal ability to photosynthesise and produce nutrient: equalisation occurs through the wood wide web to enable the less fortunate to survive. Like-wise trees which are sick may need extra nutrient in order to promote healing, provided by the healthy. Such equalisation also applies to light- vital to photosynthesis. Evidence exists that trees respect other tree’s need for a fair share of light, so control the spread of their branches – one of the reasons for the typical oval shaped crown of deciduous trees.
    There are great benefits for the trees in community living, not least dead trees leave gaps which weaken the defences of the forest so in saving one they help save all. Likewise, with protection against insects. The bark of an oak tree contains bitter/toxic tannins; if a tree is attacked by insects these tannins are released to kill the insects or provide protection through making the leaves inedible. Other trees in the network are then informed of a pending attack either through the root/ fungi network or by the wind carrying the tannin scent which in protection triggers other trees to begin pumping tannin. Amazingly, the community approach applies to things like procreation. Animals, like squirrels, deer and boar love beach nuts and acorns and can sometimes eat a high proportion of those that fall, considerably reducing the number of saplings which sprout up. In order to reduce such losses trees ‘agree’ not to seed every year. This reduces the animal population in the years when nuts/seeds are not dropped. increasing the chances of nuts/seeds surviving in the years when they are dropped . This may well be crucial to the survival of the wood since the odds against any one tree producing an offspring is not very good- about the same as winning the lottery! There is a further advantage in dropping seeds in agreed unison- it helps keep the local seed gene pool diverse reducing ‘in breeding’ (self fertilisation) which would prejudice the long term health and survival of the community.
    From this blog we can see that the behaviour which comes from interdependent living is a social necessity for long term survival of the wood, if not every tree in the wood. This promotes the growth of parallel communities like ground cover plants, animals and insects creating a unique and vibrant interdependent self -perpetuating ecosystem in which the whole exceeds the sum of the parts- each taking but also each giving!
    I hope a walk in the woods will never be the same again!
    Ps if you want to explore this further I recommend you read ‘The Hidden Lives of Trees’ by Peter Wohlleben
  • Sci-Fi and Stories

    Sci-Fi and Stories

    Hi All, the blog this week is from John Morley and we will be meeting at The Enigma Tap at 7:30pm if you are wanting to join us.

    In the days before the internet there was a bookcase. In the days before streaming there was a library. 

    In the days at the end of the moon landings there were stories. In the days of the cold war before the climate crisis was discovered there were stories about spaceships, planets, robots and other worlds. A treasure trove of ideas, images and possibilities for a boy finding escape from the boring day to day world. And there was the Hobbit too read to me by my dad and Lord of the rings on my grandpa’s bookshelf. C.S.Lewis wrote a lesser known trilogy on Mars, Venus and Human extremism on Earth ‘Cosmic trilogy’ (1945) at the time he wrote on Narnia.

    These stories were all about adventure for me as a child. I didn’t read much deeper or think how it applied to life. There were also end of the world stories: The day of the triffids (John Whyndham 1951) where people eating plants take over the world,  The Death of grass (John Christopher 1956) about a global collapse around crop disease and people fighting to survive. Of course there was 1984 possibly read around 1978.  I those days there started for me reading and a love of sci-fi. Sci-fi films followed too: The day the Earth stood still, The incredible voyage, Journey to the centre of the earth, Star Wars of course . Across various media in recent years fantasy and Sci-fi have become increasingly popular with Harry Potter and even more recently the Game of Thrones and Handmaid’s tale where book, film and TV formats have been huge popular phenomena’s.

    The stories I’ve engaged with over the years has other tracks too but sci-fi and fantasy was and is still a big part.

    Many people are put off these genres by the imagined worlds often extensive detail imagined creatures, technologies and other world’s languages, cultures and histories. The relationships and characters in these genres can seem shallow too at times. But I followed the excitement of action adventures and mysterious worlds and people. The detail appeals to some and a barrier to others is just on the surface though in better writing. They aren’t about that at all at heart. I’d say these stories at their best are really creating a place to help us look at the here and now, our fears and hopes as humans, helps us ask questions about God, the environment, human relationships.

    In fact the sci-fi and fantasy genres often carry other genres within themselves too. an early sci-fi by Isaac Asimov I Robot (1950) is a whodunnit about the ten commandments and AI. George Orwell’s1984 (1949) politics. Frank Herbert’s Dune,(1965) a desert world Sandworm story which is about a religious Messiah for a downtrodden people oppressed by a powerful empire. Philip K Dick’s Blade Runner (1968) about the morality of killing/destroying Artificial Intelligence (AI) that might be dangerous and asking could AI have a life as valuable as a human’s? Jumping to film Avatar is about dominant cultures destruction of other cultures and the environment for financial gain so relevant today.

    So why write a blog about Sci-fi and Fantasy stories in a spiritual space like this?

    Well if I look at my faith and it’s exploration and continuing development, I think it’s helped me think outside the box, I’ve used my imagination and everything can be considered and argued it’s been a place that’s helped my thinking and stretched it. In a conversations which surprised a friend introducing me to faith years ago I remember saying to his surprise, ‘oh Lord of the rings is quite like the bible’ he was shocked thinking I was speaking of the faith as a made up fantasy but it was more the darkness and light, good and evil and a lead character who embodied goodness, fights evil and comes back from the dead, that I was finding in both.

    Questions
    What are your favourite story genres?

    Where have you got your stories from reading/TV/film/ history/ people/ music? and who helped you?

    What parts of your life and faith have books/stories informed you in?

    What are the stories that speak to you now?

    What are your favourite Bible stories? What is it about them that you like?

    Who are the main characters that speak to you that you can identify with?

    Are stories meaningful to you. Have they affected your life or are they just recreational/escapism?

    Does your life have a story and what is it?

    Is the Christian faith about a story, history, fact, fiction or something else and if it’s a story what is it?

    Footnote.

    I’d recommend Brian McLaren’s and Gareth Higgins ebook and Spotify podcast series part of the Learning to See Podcast which is titled ‘The seventh story: us them and the end of violence’. Identifies 6 harmful storylines that exist in our world with a seventh that provides an approach to bringing people together in healing reconciliation. Check these out.

    Photo by Paolo Boaretto: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ufo-parking-sign-16794996/

  • Relaxxxxxx

    Relaxxxxxx

    Hi folks, I hope you are doing ok! This week we are having a chilled evening, meeting at the Quarry at 7.30

    The Quarry Inn

    90 Marden Rd S, Whitley Bay NE25 8PL

    I hope that some of you will be able to make it along.
    Peace Rob  
  • Friendship

    Friendship

    Hi folks, how are you all doing? This week we are meeting at the Tavern and Galley, 71 The Links, Whitley Bay NE26 1UE from 7.30 We hope you can join us.

    Over the last couple of months I have been reading a couple of books that have talked about friendship. First of all I read Miriam Margolyes biography ‘This much is true’. Safe to say this is not for the faint hearted!! It’s a really great read, although she doesn’t hold back on any subject, and her language is rather blue! She has a long term partner whom she has been with since 1968. They also for most of their relationship lived separately, due to their work commitments. As a result Miriam puts a lot of weight behind friendship. She talked a lot about it in her book. She is the one that brings all her old university friends together, she seems to be the gel that holds the group together. If she connects with you, it is more than likely she will hold on to you as a friend.

    The other book I have been reading and just finished is Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Zevin Gabrielle. This is a novel and it’s totally brilliant!! I gobbled this book up. It’s about two people Sadie and Sam, who meet when they are young, they become computer programmers making games together. It’s about their relationship and the swings and roundabouts that friendship brings, I won’t say anymore… apart from you need to read it!

    Those who know me, know that friendships are really important to me, although they haven’t always been, some of this is because when I was growing up I was very quiet and shy… yes I know some of you won’t believe that, but I was. Also school was a difficult place for me, I didn’t have many friends as I spent most of my time in a small remedial class with a group of kids that, shall we say, were nothing like me. I was bullied mercilessly, and as a result I didn’t build lasting friendships. I’m only vaguely in contact with one person from school, and that’s because he was part of the church youth club! I suspect I’m not alone in this, but you will have other reasons than mine for why you don’t have many friends from school.

    Friendship became a thing for me through church, and my spiritual formation changed things for me… in fact I will say it was through my faith that somehow, something was lit in me that allowed me to start connecting with people on a deeper and different level than they had done previously.

    Friendship fuels me and gives me the resources to keep going, they challenge and inspire me, they open me up to new ways of being and thinking, they offer a depth that is different to that which you have and give a spouse, although Karen is my best friend! (Don’t be sick)!

    In Miriam’s book she says this about friendship – “All I will say is that you show up for your friends on their hardest days. And you hold their hand through the roughest parts. Life is about who is holding your hand and, I think, whose hand you commit to holding”.

    I love the idea of journeying with people through the rough and smooth of life, although sometimes that is easier said than done.

     

    So here are some questions to think about.

    When you think about friendship, which fictional characters come to mind?

     

    What biblical friendships come to mind?

     

    What is your own experience of friendship?

     

    How can we ‘build’ better friendships within our *community?

    *define community anyway you like.

     

    What does friendship tell us about the divine/God?

     

    Peace Rob

     

    Photo by Yael Hofnung on Unsplash

  • Engaged Christianity

    Engaged Christianity

    Hi folks, i hope you are doing ok, this week we are meeting at 7.30 at the Shiremoor House Farm, I hope you will be able to join us.
    This weeks blog is written by Sue.

    Since the beginning of the year I have been reading the daily meditations from the Centre of Action and Contemplation of which week 2 was entitled “Engaging with a World on fire”. I found these reflective meditations to inspire, challenge and offer hope of what could actually be done while maintaining the strength, motivation and focus to do it.
    I am going to attempt to give you the highlights of these seven days in reflections written by Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren and others.

    The word engaged was inspired and contemplated after Richard Rohr and Brian McLaren read and learnt from Buddhist friends about their term of engaged Buddhism. This in turn came from the great Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hahn, who when entering the religious community at the time his nation was entering into a civil war, he found that he did not want to be on the sidelines of disengagement so he began to create what he called engaged Buddhism.

    Another inspiration was Thomas Merton who become a Trappist Monk, and wrote two books, “New seeds of contemplation” and “Seeds of Destruction” because he too believed in an engaged contemplative Christian faith.

    Richard Rohr set up the Centre of Action and Contemplation to help others to engage with both action and contemplation. Richard writes,

    “I have witnessed how many of us attach to contemplation or action for the wrong reason. Introverts may use contemplation to affirm quite time; those with the luxury of free time sometimes use it for ‘navel-gazing’. On the other hand, some activists see our call to action as an affirmation of their particular agenda and not much else… By contemplation, we mean the deliberate seeking of God through a willingness to detach from the passing self, the tyranny of emotions, the addiction to self-image and the false promises of the world. Action, as we are using the word, means a decisive commitment to involvement and engagement in the social order.

    Richard further writes that contemplation is our fixed point to stand, be steady, centred, poised and rooted. This gives us a minor detachment from the world to withdraw from ‘business as usual’ and to enter into that scared/secret place that Jesus talks about (Matthew 6:6). But he continues with the importance to remain very close ‘to the world at the same time, loving it, feeling its pain and joy as our own pain and joy, otherwise our distance becomes a form of escapism.’

    Brian McLaren writes that Jesus followed this same rhythm by withdrawing and then engaging with the society, the communities he was ‘within by healing, feeding, caring, welcoming, binding up the wounds of this world and implanting in people the vision of resilience, engaging with the world on fire.’

    When Brian wrote his book “Everything Must Change”, he studied the global crises which led to him understanding the four deep problems that we face:

    • We face a crisis with our planet
    • We have a crisis of poverty and unequal distribution of wealth and power
    • The crisis of peace
    • A crisis of religious communities remaining on the sidelines.

    Sallie McFague is quoted “Facing the world’s crisis is the first step towards loving action and change.”

    She continues ‘It will not be a world simply of less water, more heat, and fewer species of plants and animals; rather, it will be one of violent class wars over resources, the breakdown of civilisation at all levels and the end of certain facets of ordinary life that we have come to expect…’

    The weeks reflection then consider that the most difficult task facing us in being engaged in carrying the message of hope and asks ‘is it possible to have any?’ And that to enable us to carry hope to others we need to overcome our own lack of hope first.

    I do find hope in how this daily reflection is concluded “

    … this faith, not in ourselves, but in God, can free us to live lives of radical change, Perhaps it is the only thing that can. We do not rely on such hope as a way to escape personal responsibility – “Let God do it” – but rather this hope frees us from the pressure of outcomes so that we can add our best efforts to the task at hand.”

    Lerita Coleman Brown is quoted to give a practical example of the Civil Rights Movement of the many roles, responsibilities people engaged to ensure change was no longer a dream but an action to be engaged in.

    “Yet not all participants in major human rights struggles like the civil rights movement marched. People cooked meals, babysat children, wrote and filled legal briefs, trained marchers, and became community organisers. Others who were unable to march prayed, made phone calls, and hosted movement gatherings.

    Activism can be anything that helps to heal people {and other beings] and the world. The call one hears in a unitive moment might involve work on gender or environmental justice concerns or humanitarian crises. It might mean working in a soup kitchen, or connecting with the military veterans or tutoring children. Or it might mean playwriting, choreography, painting or sculpting.”

    To conclude, When we take the inward journey of contemplation it is to come into the presence of God, to connect with Him through His love for us as individuals and others. There is then a point where concerns are acknowledged, contemplated and prayed about. As we journey back out and engage with society, people and the world beginning to make connections with others, where creative can flow to being hope for change, the equality and love for all and to remove that which blocks God and individuals connecting with each other.

    Questions

    • What contemporary stories from books, movies, TV does it bring to mind?
    • If you think about contemplation and action, what bible characters do these terms remind you of?
    • What do you think about the balance of contemplation and action?
    • What are your thoughts on the four deep problems of global crises which Brian McLaren talks about?
    • How can we overcome the lack of hope to be able to take hope to others?
    • What do you think about the main roles it took for the Civil Rights movement to happen?
    • Does this have an effect on how you might be able to engage with making change in the areas that concern you?

    References:

    Radical Resilience: Weekly Summary — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
    Engaging with a World on Fire — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
    Contemplation, Love, and Action — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
    What Is Our Task? Care and Hope. — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
    Engaged Christianity — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
    Mysticism and Social Change — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
    A Lever and a Place to Stand — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
    Engaging with a World on Fire: Weekly Summary — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)

    Image by Pexels from Pixabay

  • Pursuit of silence

    Pursuit of silence

    Hi folks, how are you doing? This week we will meet at the Enigma Tap from 7.30. I hope you will be able to join us.

    This week we are going to think about a subject that’s very close to my heart………… Silence! 

    Those who know me, will recognise that I generally don’t do silence, in fact as I write this I have some very loud music on in the background. 

    Anyway, as some of you know I have upped the amount of time I spend reading, last week I found myself sitting on our sofa in silence, reading, yeah, I know… silence and reading! What has happened to Rob!? 

    This also corresponded with a friend’s post on facebook about a book by Susan Cain titled Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a world that can’t stop talking. A couple of folks from BFX have got it, or have read it.  

    Before we get into it why not check out the youtube link: 433 By John Cage is a performance piece of silence, first done by him in 1955. it has been performed all over the world in all kinds of circumstances some of them very casual some of them

    The conversation on facebook led to someone talking about a film they had discovered called ‘The Pursuit of Silence’. You can find it on various streaming channels and there is a youtube link as well. I thought I would watch it with the view of writing a reflection on it, so here it is. 

    It’s really beautifully filmed, and gives moments of silence within it, I found myself catching my breath several times as I was hooked into it. After a few images and a slow quiet start it begins with a young man, Greg Hindy who decided to walk across the United States, with a vow of silence… he communicates using cards to write on… What is interesting is that he wasn’t really sure why he was doing it, although he says “i have this feeling that it has a lot of potential to be something, be something really meaningful for me and hopefully for other people”. 

    The film pauses at various points with a mix of silence interspersed by various academics, theologians and others, reflecting on silence. Towards the start it looks at the concepts of silence, is it a decibel sense or noise sense, or lack of noise, according to DR. Helen Lees, she suggests that literature suggests silence is not necessarily about ‘noise’. So if that is the case what is it? There are two words at the core of the word silence:

    “anastagon and then decinary one of them has to do with the wind dying down and the other has to do with a kind of stopping of motion they’re both to do with an interruption, not just of sound, but… are also due to… the interruption of the imposition of our own egos on the world.” 

    There were a few other ideas that made me ponder and so I wrote them down… Here are a few quotes from the film.

    “we lose a lot when we don’t allow people and not just allow but encourage people to go off by themselves you know whether literally into the woods or metaphorically to just go and start your own journey and do it by yourself and there are certain paths in this life that you’ve gotta walk alone and that’s the only way to do them.” 

    “silence is where we hear something deeper than our chatter and silence is where we speak something deeper than our words. All of us know that the most essential things in life are exactly what we can’t express our relation to faith, our relation to love our relation to death our relation to divinity so I think silence is the resting place of everything essential.”

    “silence is a journey into the wilderness and into the dark you can’t be sure what you’re going to encounter there and I think many people are rightly wary of silence because we use noise as a distraction and an evasion. Silence is a journey right into the heart of your being, if you allow silence to circulate particularly among people, what you’re going to discover is that your mind becomes aware of what the truth is and sometimes truth is not that sugar-coated… it puts people against a wall and says this is you and you’re human and you’re existing right now and this is your reality do you like it and often people say no”.

    

    Some questions.
    

    How do you feel about silence? 

    

    What has been your most profound experience of silence?

    

    What paths in life do we have to walk alone? 

    

    What bible stories come to mind when thinking about silence?

    

    Have you read or watched anything that explores silence? 

    

    What questions does silence raise for you about the way you live? 

    

    How does silence relate to your inner self/prayer? 

    Peace Rob

    Image by NoName_13 from Pixabay

  • Happy New Year!

    Happy New Year!

    Hi folks, I trust you are all recovered after the Christmas and New Year shenanigans. It’s been a steady start to the New Year for us, easing back in to work and trying to not let the damp weather get to us.

    A few things to say as we start the new year, we still have a bit of availability for the weekend away if anybody wants to know more about it and would like to join us, please do speak to me ASAP. We will put a final deadline at next Sunday 14th January.

    We also found out that the community giving group we are part of, Common Change, gave a total amount of £25,812.36 in 2023! Our own Group gave a not too shabby £2,795.
    If you would like to know more about Common Change and join our BFX group speak to David or I.

    We begin this new year with a catch up evening, meeting at the formerly named Briar Dene now called the Tavern and Galley, 71 The Links, Whitley Bay NE26 1UE from 7.30. It would be lovely to see you there if you are able.

    If you have wondered about coming along and joining us, this would be a good week to do that, as there will be space to chat. If you want to know more then please do message us.

    Hope to see you Sunday. Rob