Date/Time
Date(s) - 13/04/2022
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Location
Bridlington Priory Church
Category(ies)
This ‘taster’ day was designed to introduce participants to forms of prayer and approaches to spirituality that they may not have experienced before, in a friendly, informal workshop environment. The event was called ‘Food for the Journey’ because it offered spiritual nourishment for our journey through life, our journey with God. For those looking for a more creative approach to prayer or practical guidance on how to develop a prayer life, this was a day to make a real difference.
While participants may or may not have had a formal church allegiance, they all had an interest in spirituality and wished to explore challenging questions in a practical way. For example: what is prayer? How can we listen to God? How can we use the arts to assist or inform prayer? Is meditation Christian – and how do you do it?
Each participant chose three workshops from the programme, and all workshops were interactive with the chance to put ideas into practice. Participants were encouraged to be bold in their choices and try something new - and many were pleasantly surprised!
Programme
Rev. David Jackson - ‘Praying with Icons’
Praying with Icons has been a tradition for hundreds of years, particularly in the Orthodox Christian Church. In recent years, however, non-Orthodox Christians have re-discovered the value of contemplative prayer and have begun to incorporate the use of Icons as part of their spiritual life. Participants of this workshop received some background information about Icons and experienced praying using an Icon.
Bishop Richard - ‘Lectio Divina’
Lectio Divina, literally ‘divine reading’, is a way of reading the bible which enables each participant to identify and respond to what the passage is saying to him or herself. Participants were invited to read, meditate, pray and contemplate.
Poppy Weston - ‘Labyrinth’
Walking the labyrinth is a Christian tradition with deep roots. Many medieval churches including, famously, Chartres cathedral, offered this opportunity to those unable to make a full pilgrimage. Participants of this workshop learnt how to use the labyrinth for focused reflection.
Rev. Carole Aconley - ‘Creation Spirituality’
This workshop was for reflecting on and perhaps rediscovering the “awe”-someness of the Creator through sight, touch and sound of the created world.
Bishop David James - ‘Benedicite: Science as a Springboard to Worship’
‘O, all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord’ (the Benedicite)
In popular thought science is the enemy of religion, but there is at the same time an growing appreciation that deeper scientific understanding inspires a deeper sense of awe and wonder and that it can also lead to a richer understanding of the triune God. Very little pre-knowledge of science (or Christianity) was needed for this session.
Rev. John Wardle - ‘Prayer for Healing’
A look at our own prayers for healing and the healing ministry, which can be a regular part of the mission of every parish.
Poppy Weston - ‘Meditation (John Main)’
Participants of this workshop learnt to practise stillness and listening to God through the use of a simple phrase or mantra. This is a longstanding Christian tradition recovered by the Benedictine monk John Main since the 1970s and taught through the World Community of Christian Meditation.
Rev. Liz Hassall - ‘Taize Worship’
‘Singing is one of the most essential elements of worship. Short songs, repeated again and again, give it a meditative character. As the words are sung over many times, this reality gradually penetrates the whole being. Meditative singing thus becomes a way of listening to God. It allows everyone to take part in a time of prayer together. And an inner life begins to blossom within us’ (information from the Taize website).
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