Good Morning,
I listened to Beyond Belief this week where there was a very good discussion of the use of apocalyptic language in the context of climate change. If you haven't heard it I recommend taking half an hour to do so.
Click the link in the title above to get to the programme.
Tim
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Angels and Palestine
As mentioned last week, the Bookgroup is going well. We talk, we drink, we laugh, we share. About 8 or 9 people now every time. Some come for the books, some come for the company.
We decided against reading The Famished Road for the upcoming April 17th meeting. A number people have tried started it numerous times and...the last book promised angels and it didn't really give us angels. Roger suggested Quaker Sally Vicker's novel Miss Garnet's Angelas a wonderful alternative. A couple people oohed and aahed when it was suggested. So it seemed an obvious altenrative. Sorted.
In September Matt Robson and I are making an appeal which touches on Palestine, a topic I would like to know more about, so thought it might make sense to have a themed book club. Asked Matt what his favourite book on Palestine was and he said the graphic novel (which I keep meaning to read more of anyway) Palestineby Joe Sacco (and foreword by Edward Said in some editions I believe). Again, an enthusiastic response by the one person who had read it and nobody seemed to hate the idea so...date still to be set, but that's what is coming up in the bookgroup for September.
We decided against reading The Famished Road for the upcoming April 17th meeting. A number people have tried started it numerous times and...the last book promised angels and it didn't really give us angels. Roger suggested Quaker Sally Vicker's novel Miss Garnet's Angelas a wonderful alternative. A couple people oohed and aahed when it was suggested. So it seemed an obvious altenrative. Sorted.
In September Matt Robson and I are making an appeal which touches on Palestine, a topic I would like to know more about, so thought it might make sense to have a themed book club. Asked Matt what his favourite book on Palestine was and he said the graphic novel (which I keep meaning to read more of anyway) Palestineby Joe Sacco (and foreword by Edward Said in some editions I believe). Again, an enthusiastic response by the one person who had read it and nobody seemed to hate the idea so...date still to be set, but that's what is coming up in the bookgroup for September.
Sustainability and Arts in Development: upcoming events at the University of Sheffield
Two events that are open to the public and free at the University of Sheffield in the next couple weeks that are of a Quakerly sort of interest and seem to follow on from discussions that are going on at the Meeting.
The first is on sustainability (and city design and free canapes) and the second is on arts and development (and has live music with great musicians and more free food). Both take place in the ICOSS Building which is here: and looks like this:
1) Universities as Catalysts for Sustainable City Design
Are Professors really stuck in their Ivory Tower? Is higher education relevant? Can Universities really catalyze community change?
This talk and discussion will focus on an urgent new role for higher education institutions to be the catalysts for sustainable city design. This event will focus on the Sustainable City Year programme at the University of Oregon (USA), a programme that helps direct expertise of faculty and students toward a single city to help on sustainability issues. In this model of education, students get hands on experience in working with city officials and city officials get a range of new ideas from the next generation of thinkers and practitioners.
This year, the Sustainable City Year program is working with the City of Gresham (Oregon, USA) and is directing 15 faculty, 24 courses, 7 disciplines, and about 100,000 hours of student and faculty effort toward the city's needs. Can this model of higher education work in the UK?
FREE and Open to the Public. Canapes and drinks provided.
Sheffield: March 11 5:30-7:30 Sheffield University, ICOSS Board Room, 219 Portobello (To book a place, please email: judith.eversley@rtpi.org.uk)
Speakers:
Nico Larco, AIA, is an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Marc Schlossberg, PhD, is an Associate Professor of City Planning. Both co-Direct the Sustainable Cities Initiative at the University of Oregon (USA). Professor Schlossberg is also currently a Distinguished Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Sheffield's Town and Regional Planning Department.
Talks are supported by the Royal Town Planning Institute, Planning Aid, and the University of Sheffield.
2) Arts in Development (with music!)
This event will feature talks followed by open discussion on arts and development, involving Sheffield academics and artists working in the community, followed by a workshop on Indian and Southern African music. Come experience and participate in the santoor, tabla and vocal music mini fest.
For details see
Date – Thursday, the 18th of March, 2010, 1.30 -3.30 pm
Speakers
Dr. Nadine Wills, LeTS, Univ. of Sheffield - A critical look at arts and development
Dr. Chamu Kuppuswamy, Sheffield Law School - Intellectual property rights and
traditional arts
Dr. Kathleen Van Buren, Department of Music, Univ. of Sheffield - Arts and healthcare
Mr. Philip Weiss, SEMEA, Sheffield and Mr. Mandla Sibanda, Sunduza Dance Theatre,
Sheffield - Traditional arts management and practice
Performances by John Ball, a member of Indus and SOSA-XA! Sounds of Southern Africa.
Venue – ICOSS (The Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences (see details below)
Admission is FREE, Please sign up with the event coordinator Chamu Kuppuswamy by emailing her at c.kuppuswamy@shef.ac.uk or leaving a message on 0114 2226877.
The first is on sustainability (and city design and free canapes) and the second is on arts and development (and has live music with great musicians and more free food). Both take place in the ICOSS Building which is here: and looks like this:
1) Universities as Catalysts for Sustainable City Design
Are Professors really stuck in their Ivory Tower? Is higher education relevant? Can Universities really catalyze community change?
This talk and discussion will focus on an urgent new role for higher education institutions to be the catalysts for sustainable city design. This event will focus on the Sustainable City Year programme at the University of Oregon (USA), a programme that helps direct expertise of faculty and students toward a single city to help on sustainability issues. In this model of education, students get hands on experience in working with city officials and city officials get a range of new ideas from the next generation of thinkers and practitioners.
This year, the Sustainable City Year program is working with the City of Gresham (Oregon, USA) and is directing 15 faculty, 24 courses, 7 disciplines, and about 100,000 hours of student and faculty effort toward the city's needs. Can this model of higher education work in the UK?
FREE and Open to the Public. Canapes and drinks provided.
Sheffield: March 11 5:30-7:30 Sheffield University, ICOSS Board Room, 219 Portobello (To book a place, please email: judith.eversley@rtpi.org.uk)
Speakers:
Nico Larco, AIA, is an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Marc Schlossberg, PhD, is an Associate Professor of City Planning. Both co-Direct the Sustainable Cities Initiative at the University of Oregon (USA). Professor Schlossberg is also currently a Distinguished Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Sheffield's Town and Regional Planning Department.
Talks are supported by the Royal Town Planning Institute, Planning Aid, and the University of Sheffield.
2) Arts in Development (with music!)
This event will feature talks followed by open discussion on arts and development, involving Sheffield academics and artists working in the community, followed by a workshop on Indian and Southern African music. Come experience and participate in the santoor, tabla and vocal music mini fest.
For details see
Date – Thursday, the 18th of March, 2010, 1.30 -3.30 pm
Speakers
Dr. Nadine Wills, LeTS, Univ. of Sheffield - A critical look at arts and development
Dr. Chamu Kuppuswamy, Sheffield Law School - Intellectual property rights and
traditional arts
Dr. Kathleen Van Buren, Department of Music, Univ. of Sheffield - Arts and healthcare
Mr. Philip Weiss, SEMEA, Sheffield and Mr. Mandla Sibanda, Sunduza Dance Theatre,
Sheffield - Traditional arts management and practice
Performances by John Ball, a member of Indus and SOSA-XA! Sounds of Southern Africa.
Venue – ICOSS (The Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences (see details below)
Admission is FREE, Please sign up with the event coordinator Chamu Kuppuswamy by emailing her at c.kuppuswamy@shef.ac.uk or leaving a message on 0114 2226877.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
This is happening Now
Friday, 12 February 2010
Becoming Friends
One of the wonderful unintended consequences of Quaker Quest for British Quakers has been the growing realisation that we need to offer all these newcomers some way of engaging with Quaker spirituality (beyond just gesturing in the direction of the library and saying 'there's lots of books about it in there...')
A new project called Becoming Friends has now been developed by Woodbrooke, which offers a range of ways for people to learn about, explore, and discuss the Quaker Way. The course includes written materials, links to video and audio recordings, online forums and also the opportunity for learners to share and discuss themes and experiences with a trained 'companion' from their local Meeting.
The course is available in paper format (for £10) or online (£5), and is a great resource for all Quakers and attenders (not just the newcomers it has been designed for). More information, including a free demo option here.
A new project called Becoming Friends has now been developed by Woodbrooke, which offers a range of ways for people to learn about, explore, and discuss the Quaker Way. The course includes written materials, links to video and audio recordings, online forums and also the opportunity for learners to share and discuss themes and experiences with a trained 'companion' from their local Meeting.
The course is available in paper format (for £10) or online (£5), and is a great resource for all Quakers and attenders (not just the newcomers it has been designed for). More information, including a free demo option here.
Thursday, 11 February 2010
about being a Quaker...
Before the New Year our Hearts and Minds group met. The final activity of that particular session was where we were each asked to write on pieces of paper terms or phrases that for us encapsulated – in some way – what we felt and/or had learned about being a Quaker. Several of the group are members of the Society of Friends; others are more or less long term attenders. We have all agreed to share this list of understandings as perhaps a window into further reflections about being a Quaker.
- Equality
- About compassion and listening
- Being open and honest (or trying to be)
- Committing to the practice of being silent together
- Being someone who isn’t afraid of silence
- Peace
- Possibility
- Developing my voice
- Being part of a group where everyone’s voice can be heard
- Respecting and honouring others
- Finding something beyond ‘thought’
- Not stealing post-it notes from work – thinking about what I do in the world
- Living according to my values and questioning and affirming my values
- Having a place to be
- Listening deeply
- God – living life
- God – forgiveness acceptance
- Questions and learning
- Having somewhere to go and something to do on Sunday morning without having to think about it each time!
- Thinking
- Something greater than me
- Supportive environment for trying to live a positive purposeful life where beliefs, ideals and actions are linked
- Doing and being with integrity
- Making time/space to let a voice inside be heard – to listen to ‘that of God within me’ and to have this approach to others
- Connections with my family
- Shaking/stirring the pot and letting it settle
- Engagement and ethics
- Connectedness with history
- Important values, together, peace, equality, simplicity? consensus
- Acceptance – non-judging
- I love the uncertainty of not knowing where a Meeting for Worship is going to go
- The children – and offering them this…
- Exploring
- Shared and equal responsibility for the voice within us and the community as a whole
- Be able to be still and quiet
- Being free to believe in god, and to not believe too
- Being part of a community
- Am I a Quaker?
- Listening
- Engaging with Quaker tradition/testimonies
- No priests!
- Being open to the still small voice within
- Being part of a community
- Greater acceptance of the diversity of individuals
- Practice
- Making and developing friendships
- Living reflectively
- Having responsibilities for others in the Meeting – not just ‘taking’
- Living actively, rather than reactively
- Valuing my own experience of spirituality
- Listening, hearing others
- Being someone who takes their coat off to worship!
Monday, 8 February 2010
Meeting needs in worship
There has been much threshing in our large meeting about our meeting for worship arrangements now that our main Sunday morning meeting is nearly filling the space available. A lot of this threshing has focused on meeting the many and diverse needs of those attending the meeting. Many feel that the big main meeting is too 'busy' with lots of ministry and want a 'quieter' meeting, mainly in silence.
I for one am becoming settled on having two meetings for worship on a Sunday morning. But this is simply to accommodate the numbers. Each meeting would be a full and proper meeting for worship, and whether or not it is 'busy' will depend on the leading of the spirit on that day. After much concern about the 'busyness' of our main meeting, exercising discipline in giving and receiving ministry seems to be paying off, and we have had some much more centred meetings recently. In other words, it is not the size of the meeting that determines its quality, but the extent to which those present are attentive to the leadings of the spirit.
However, I became much moved in our recent business meeting to what might go wrong if our two meetings did evolve into meeting two different sets of needs. I saw myself wondering what it would be like to be the clerk at a business meeting where the two worshipping groups faced each other to the left and right of the table, and the clerk needed to judge the sense of the meeting in coming to a difficult decision. I would not want to be that clerk.
Of course, there is no reason why we cannot have two meetings for worship and still be one community. People can attend either the earlier or later meeting depending on their circumstances on each Sunday. We could still all meet each other, especially in the time between the two meetings, and we would still all share the concerns and work of the community.
But what if the earlier meeting became the 'quiet' meeting? Then what if I was well known and respected for giving regular ministry, and decided to attend the early meeting one Sunday? I can imagine it might be like what I have experienced before, when going into the snug of an avowedly local pub, and noticing that the conversation stops as I go towards the bar to order my drink. I feel distinctly not welcome, a stranger in their midst, and beat a hasty retreat to the tap room next door.
The problem with these scenarios is in seeing the purpose of the meeting for worship as meeting our needs. The actual purpose of a Meeting for Worship is to celebrate the life of the community – to give 'worth' to that community, in its sorrows as well as its joys, in its pain and hardships as well as its rejoicing and successes.
If we bring our needs into the meeting, we will find them amplified and frustrated, but if we leave our needs at the door, we will find them miraculously met. We must put aside the pride that has been bred into us by western individualism and learn the humility of forbearing one another in community. We must come with hearts and minds prepared.
We need to submit to one another in love. Submission does not come easily to us proud westerners who think ourselves masters of the universe because our science and technology has given us so much. We could do worse than learn from our Muslim neighbours: Salam, Islam, Inshallah – Peace, Submission, If God Wishes.
I for one am becoming settled on having two meetings for worship on a Sunday morning. But this is simply to accommodate the numbers. Each meeting would be a full and proper meeting for worship, and whether or not it is 'busy' will depend on the leading of the spirit on that day. After much concern about the 'busyness' of our main meeting, exercising discipline in giving and receiving ministry seems to be paying off, and we have had some much more centred meetings recently. In other words, it is not the size of the meeting that determines its quality, but the extent to which those present are attentive to the leadings of the spirit.
However, I became much moved in our recent business meeting to what might go wrong if our two meetings did evolve into meeting two different sets of needs. I saw myself wondering what it would be like to be the clerk at a business meeting where the two worshipping groups faced each other to the left and right of the table, and the clerk needed to judge the sense of the meeting in coming to a difficult decision. I would not want to be that clerk.
Of course, there is no reason why we cannot have two meetings for worship and still be one community. People can attend either the earlier or later meeting depending on their circumstances on each Sunday. We could still all meet each other, especially in the time between the two meetings, and we would still all share the concerns and work of the community.
But what if the earlier meeting became the 'quiet' meeting? Then what if I was well known and respected for giving regular ministry, and decided to attend the early meeting one Sunday? I can imagine it might be like what I have experienced before, when going into the snug of an avowedly local pub, and noticing that the conversation stops as I go towards the bar to order my drink. I feel distinctly not welcome, a stranger in their midst, and beat a hasty retreat to the tap room next door.
The problem with these scenarios is in seeing the purpose of the meeting for worship as meeting our needs. The actual purpose of a Meeting for Worship is to celebrate the life of the community – to give 'worth' to that community, in its sorrows as well as its joys, in its pain and hardships as well as its rejoicing and successes.
If we bring our needs into the meeting, we will find them amplified and frustrated, but if we leave our needs at the door, we will find them miraculously met. We must put aside the pride that has been bred into us by western individualism and learn the humility of forbearing one another in community. We must come with hearts and minds prepared.
We need to submit to one another in love. Submission does not come easily to us proud westerners who think ourselves masters of the universe because our science and technology has given us so much. We could do worse than learn from our Muslim neighbours: Salam, Islam, Inshallah – Peace, Submission, If God Wishes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)