from the comfort of your own home
Into the margins;
over the edge;
through the heart
These three Zoom-based reflective processes or retreats are designed to help us explore themes of change and transformation in our lives and situations. Using a range of experiential processes, biblical and other readings, commentaries, reflection and our imagination, they may be applied at a personal, Church or community level.
Sessions are free but booking is essential as each process is limited to 10 people. Sessions last up to 90 minutes and can be taken alone or in conjunction with the others.
Into the margins Dates and times to be added
Over the edges
Through the heart
The sessions are run as a preview to a later showing in the West End (as part of HeartEdge (https://www.heartedge.org/) , a project run by St. Martins in the Fields. They are designed and led by Chris Bemrose. Chris is a trained Social Sculptor: using the arts, broadly defined, to bring about social, ecological and spiritual change. He is a former leader of L’Arche Bognor Regis, Management Consultant and Hospice Visitor. He is a member of Bognor Quakers and has worked with a wide range of Church and non-Church groups.
To book (and receive the Zoom link) please contact Chris at chrisbemrose123@gmail.com with any questions. Further details at http://chrisbemrose.org/spiritual-journeys/
Reflective process 1: Journeying into the margins
The margins are places where we often feel alone, powerless and vulnerable. Those who are marginalised often feel far from the centre. The margins and the marginalised are central to much Christian thought and practice. This session will involve an exploration of the margins in our respective worlds. We will look at the treasure that often lies buried in the margins and how wholeness involves integrating what is excluded from the centre.
‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’. (Matt 21:42)
Reflective process 2: Journeying over the edge
When we cross edges, boundaries or borders, we move beyond ourselves – from one place or state of being or understanding to another. Edges are thresholds, places of excitement and adventure, but often also fear and uncertainty. In this session we explore what helps and hinders us in leaving our comfort zone and crossing over the edge into the new and unknown.
‘When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ (Matt 14:26-27)
Reflective process 3: Journeying through the heart
The heart is central to our bodies, refreshing and renewing our blood every second of every day of our lives. In this process we will imagine what it might be to travel through our hearts, using this as a metaphor for our own revitalisation and transformation. We will also look at what the heart may have to teach us, as individuals, Churches, communities or Society as a whole.
‘A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh’. Ezekiel 36:26