|
|
|
|
GreenSpirit Newsletter
www.greenspirit.org.uk
~ We are a network of people who practise loving our living planet ~
October 2024
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
~ is now available for sale ~
|
|
|
|
|
The 2025 GreenSpirit Calendar: Living with the Seasons has beautiful photographs and inspirational quotations for each month.
GreenSpirit members who receive printed copies of the magazine will receive a free printed copy of the calendar, this will be posted out in November. GreenSpirit members who receive computer file (pdf) copies of the magazine will receive a free computer file (pdf) of the calendar, this will be emailed out in November. Click here to join GreenSpirit.
The cost of the calendar is:
* by post in the UK: £9.00
* by post overseas (outside the UK): £14.50
Click here to find out more about the calendar and how to buy it online or by cheque.
|
|
|
|
|
~ Exploring Resilience in a world affected by Climate Change ~
We have had a good response to this survey so far – thank you to everyone who has contributed. There is always room for more responses so please read below about the questionnaire or click here to go straight to it.
Many people believe that climate change and ecological crisis are an indication of a deep and spiritual crisis. The challenges we face can be difficult even to think about. Climate change, political polarization, economic upheaval, and mass extinction together create a planetary emergency of overwhelming proportions. We will need to strengthen our capacity to face this polycrisis so that we can respond with resilience and creative power.
This is a short questionnaire about how we feel about the future, what we understand resilience to be and how we are adapting to be ready to deal with the cultural shifts that may be facing us.
Responses to this questionnaire will feed into an article on Building Resilience in the GreenSpirit magazine and hopefully help us to share the wisdom we already have and, individually and communally, develop our spiritual, emotional and practical resources.
Please don't feel you have to write long answers, bullet points are ok, and if your time is limited, answer the questions you feel most strongly about. Thank you!!
The link to the questionnaire is here:
https://forms.gle/hkS8nhLvgF8gAc977
|
|
|
|
Samhain Celebration - online
Monday 28th October 2024 19:00
At our Samhain Celebration we prepare for the autumnal descent into the winter darkness. We honour our Ancestors, those who have gone before us. We remember our loved ones who have passed away, so maybe bring a photo of someone you would particularly like to remember. For many indigenous traditions this time is when the veil between worlds is thinner and it is the time when ancestors are most present, so we will do some divination, I will have some ancestor oracle cards. If you would like to please bring seasonal reflections or tell us a bit about your ancestors.
The facebook event is at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1274841643505706
Join us on Zoom to celebrate the Samhain. The zoom details are:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84079414983?pwd=cHFmYld6cFl6OUl0UkJlMnpYMEhndz09
Meeting ID: 840 7941 4983
Passcode: 413541
|
|
|
|
Anam Cara – Online - Daytime
Fortnightly (1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month at 10am except sometimes in school holidays). Next meetings:
Wednesday 16th October 10:00am
https://www.facebook.com/events/1293546058297313
Wednesday 6th November 10:00am
Wednesday 20th November 10:00am
A gathering of souls who sense they are on a journey; for companionship and support.
Discover and behold one another at the level of the heart. Creating/developing friendships we will extend compassion and aspire toward an authentic, organic spiritual transformational connection of mutual empowerment and blessing — “giving by receiving” and “receiving by giving”.
We will begin each session with a check-in and the creation of sacred space, (with meditation, a reading or silence). Then, maybe with the help of some questions we will share from our hearts and witness the sharing of others.
The zoom link details are:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82932062741?pwd=MjBJcTUyOUhqd2lyYnZibjl4TjZ1QT09
Meeting ID: 829 3206 2741
Passcode: 834410
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
|
Reviewed by Piers Warren.
I first heard about Simon Boas on BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House programme where he was reading out an article he had written that had been published in the Jersey Evening Post – his local paper. This article was the second of three that he had written for the paper and it had gone viral, shared with millions of people across the world.
Click here for the full review.
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
|
Free Pdf (computer file) Titles from Our Early Pamphlet Series:
by Grace Blindell
This pamphlet presents an eloquent and authoritative introduction to Creation Centred Spirituality. It conveys not only the ideas that are central to it, but also what it feels like, through a wonderful blend of poetry and prose.
Click here to download the pamphlet for free.
Also, see a full list of free downloadable titles and other books etc:
https://www.greenspirit.org.uk/books-other-titles/
|
|
|
|
|
https://www.greenspirit.org.uk/saving-life-on-earth/
Make a Difference One Small Step at a Time
There are so many little things we can all do to reduce our impact on Planet Earth, live more ethically and lower our carbon footprint to help reduce climate change. It may seem overwhelming but by tackling things one small step at a time we can all make a difference. In each newsletter we’ll focus on just one action you can think about tackling today.
Pets
The number of domestic animals kept for company/fun/interest worldwide is huge. These are all a further drain on resources and produce their own share of pollution (think of the billions of dog poo bags used each year, for example). There are also many unwanted and feral animals. So consider carefully before taking on new pets, limit the number (do you really need four dogs?), have pets sterilised to reduce unwanted pregnancies, and get them from shelters rather than from breeders.
You can explore a whole range of other possibilities in our Green Action Toolkit at:
https://www.greenspirit.org.uk/saving-life-on-earth/
|
|
|
|
|
Video from one of our past events:
A Celebration of the Vision and Path of Thomas Berry
This video is from the talk by Vandana Shiva:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy-bvvtkDVE
Click here for a playlist of all 5 talks at this event including talks by Matthew Fox, Cormac Cullinan, Peter Reason and Satish Kumar.
|
|
|
|
Join GreenSpirit
Including the magazine, GreenSpirit calendar: living with the seasons, GreenSpirit members email newsletter and many other advantages.
£24 per annum or £12 for internet (paperless) subscribers or concessionary rate in the UK.
Click here to find out more and to join
Plus:
Free book when you join GreenSpirit!
Join GreenSpirit and you will receive a free copy of What is Green Spirituality? along with the GreenSpirit magazine, calendar and all of the other advantages of membership. See all of the advantages of membership here:
https://www.greenspirit.org.uk/join-us/#benefits
What is Green Spirituality? describes and illustrates, through the well-blended voices of thirteen writers, the basic concepts and expressions of this growing kind of spiritual attitude in today’s world – what it is, where it comes from and who practises it. More details at:
https://www.greenspirit.org.uk/books-greenspirit-book-series/#wigs
To join GreenSpirit, click on the link below:
https://www.greenspirit.org.uk/join-us/
|
|
|
|
|
October Image and Quotation
Photo © Brian Jackson
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
John Muir
https://www.greenspirit.org.uk/community-calendar/
|
|
|
|
Ryedale and Ryedale & Yorkshire Coast
Samhain
Sunday 27th October, 4pm-6p
Friends Meeting House, Greengate, Malton. YO17 7EN
Samhain (pronounced Sow inn) is an ancient celebration largely of Celtic origin. It signifies the end of the harvest period and the beginning of Winter and, for many of our ancient ancestors, it marked the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. Samhain can be full of meaning and can mark life changes and new growth to come - let it be our special GreenSpirit celebration together.
Click here for full details on facebook.
Click here for more details of the group including contact phone number.
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Reading
Hester’s Halloween Trail
Join us for this event on 26th October at Caversham Court Gardens.
What is Green Spirituality?
2nd November 3pm - 5pm - RISC 35-39, London Street, Reading. RG1 4PS
A talk and discussion about our vital connection with the Earth. Green spirituality inspires compassion for all life. Talk by Ian Mowll - co-ordinator of GreenSpirit who has over 20 years’ experience in the eco-spiritual world. Contact: readinggreenspirit@outlook.com
Click here for details of the group and further contact details.
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
East London
Samhain
Hope you can join us in person in Park Road, E15 3QP on Saturday November 2nd 2024 for our Samhain Celebration and prepare for the autumnal descent into the winter darkness. 6 pm for simple food and 7pm for the ritual when we will honour our Ancestors, those in our families and those of our land, who have gone before us, hopefully around a fire in the garden if the weather is ok. We will remember our loved ones who have passed away, so maybe bring a photo of someone you would particularly like to remember. If you would like to, bring seasonal food, readings or songs, or foliage for the Ancestor Altar. Contact Hilary via the East London facebook page for the full address.
Click here for full details of this event.
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Talks about GreenSpirit and Green Spirituality
|
|
|
|
|
Want to find out more about GreenSpirit and green spirituality? 3 people offer talks which can be done in-person or often online.
To find out more, click on this link:
https://www.greenspirit.org.uk/talks/
|
|
|
|
|
Photo © biletskiy/shutterstock.com
Winter can be a good time for us too. Less pressured to ‘do’, more time to ‘be’. Time to learn, read, self-educate and prepare for the season ahead, and perhaps above all, a time to dream in the darkness.
~ Trevor Sharman.
Quotation from Dark Nights of the Green Soul: From Darkness to New Horizons edited by Ian Mowll and Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston).
Eighth title in the GreenSpirit book series, which is a low-cost series that offers ebook editions ‘free’ for members of GreenSpirit.
For more details of this book visit the GreenSpirit Book Series web page here.
Or find out about the whole book series on the facebook page here
|
|
|
|
|
Illustration © by Simon Blakeman
~ Book Launch ~
Monday 21st October 2024 18:00 - 19:15
Institute of Physics, 37 Caledonian Road. London N1 9BU
An evening event to explore a processual view of complexity theory, building on the new book by Jean Boulton, The Dao of Complexity (De Gruyter:2024).
Jean, in conversation with Mark Hardman, will explore:
* the ‘metaphysics’ of complexity science
* the resonance of process complexity with Daoism and other bodies of knowledge from political theory to brain science
* the difference between a view of the complex world derived computationally and one based on empirical methods
* how scientific worldviews shape policy and management practice in the social world.
Jean is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a founding member of the Nonlinear and Complex Physics group, and lead author of Embracing Complexity (2015:OUP).
Details at:
https://www.iop.org/events/dao-complexity
You can attend by zoom or in person - but you need to register in advance.
|
|
|
|
|
St Bede's Pastoral Centre - York
Saturday 16th November from 10am to 3.30pm.
Cost: £20
A day to get to know Thomas Berry CP (1914-2009) and his massive contribution to Creation Centred Spirituality for the 21st Century. We learn of and pray with some of his key writings including ‘The New Story of the Universe’, All creation as a ‘Communion of Subjects’ and ‘The Great Work and the future of Humanity’.
Paul has read and re-read Thomas Berry for over 20 years and has been endlessly inspired and awed by the breadth of his vision and scholarship for who we are and how we might be on the earth. If you know him well or not at all, feel free to come and share in this day.
Paul Golightly is Director of St Bede’s and an ordained Methodist Minister who is committed to offering a myriad of ways into the divine life and love, within all we do, at St Bede’s and as national co-ordinator for the Capacitar Wellness network.
Click here for a webpage and to buy tickets.
Click here for a flyer for the day.
|
|
|
|
Window on Lindow
This year marks 40 years since of the finding of the body of Lindow Man, now recognised as Britain’s most famous bog body. To celebrate this special anniversary, charity Transition Wilmslow, together with the newly formed Lindow Moss Landscape Partnership, the Friends of Lindow Moss and the Guild for Lifelong Learning, is organising a programme of activities from May to December; all details on www.discoverlindow.org
An important component of Discover Lindow will be an Art Trail around Lindow Moss: Window on Lindow.
Initiated and organised by ecologist, artist and friend of the Moss, Phil Barton
(https://philbartonartist.c4cp.net), the Trail will include works by children from five local primary schools and students from Wilmslow High School, as well as installations by Phil and other professional artists (Liz Ellis, Steve Sutton, Juliet Hamilton and Rupert Randall). The work will be on and around the cut over peat bog and will stay in situ from mid-June to late-October.
For full information go to:
https://greenspirit.org.uk/pdf/discover-lindow-2024.pdf
|
|
|
|
|
A reflective day
Saturday 9th November 2024
With Alan Heeks and Simon Lockett
How can we find our steady centre in these uncertain times? Where do we place our faith and our hope? This day of exploration and support will include times of prayer, meditation and sharing, with periods outside for walking contemplation as a micro pilgrimage, and for communing with Nature as a micro vision quest: recognising the power of space and silence.
Our venue is Garn Farm, a conservation smallholding and woodland near Longtown, in a beautiful valley overlooking the Black Mountains. See more at www.warmthandwonder.co.uk.
Alan Heeks has many years' experience exploring Nature and faith as sources of resilience, and is deeply interested in how communities can deepen to help us adapt to climate change.
Simon Lockett is a pioneer in re-introducing pilgrimage to Herefordshire, and has a long-standing love for contemplative prayer and spiritual connection with the natural world.
Practicalities
• Cost: £40, concessions £25. Bring lunch to share.
• Timing: Arrive 9.30am for 10am start. Finish 4.30pm.
• Bookings/enquiries: Contact Alan Heeks, alanheeks@gmail.com, 07494 203014. Group size limited to 12 people.
Click here for full information about the day.
|
|
|
|
Men's Elderhood Retreat
15th - 17th November 2024
A men's peer group
Llanthony Valley, Black Mountains, Wales
|
|
|
|
|
This weekend offers a shared space to explore as a peer group how we harvest the fruits and grow through the issues of getting older: a chance to look afresh at our past and present, and consider the future we'd like to help create. How can we serve as elders in these troubled times, and be good ancestors to those who come after us? What's the balance, in later life, between inner contemplation and outer action? This will be a peer group for a maximum of six men, enabled by Alan Heeks and Mark Smalley: we will all shape the way we use the time together. Our time will probably include group processes, walks (to a beautiful waterfall), meditation and solo time. Our venue is Trwyn Tal, a 30-acre hill farm with amazing views and upland walks, in the Black Mountains, extremely quiet, but accessible: about half an hour north of Abergavenny (nearest train station), and about 1.5 hours from Bristol by car. See more at www.welshmountainretreat.com. We will have a spacious self-catering cottage as our base, plus bedrooms in the farmhouse: total group size six, assuming that two men are sharing a twin room or that one man is in a tent or campervan. The cost for accommodation will be £165, and we will share food purchases and cooking between us. For more info or bookings, please contact Mark Smalley, markosmalley@gmail.com/0776 433 5688.
|
|
|
|
How do I know what to believe?
~ Fact, fiction, faith: AI in an uncertain world - a conversation with Jocelyn Burnham, and Dr Shauna Concannon. ~
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 24th October 6pm - 8:30pm
St James's Church, Piccadilly, 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL
Organised by St James's Church, Piccadilly
We will launch Conversations Under Trees with a special event on Thursday 24th October, when Jocelyn Burnham and Dr Shauna Concannont will take part in an open conversation chaired by Revd Lucy Winkett, in which everyone is welcome to share their thoughts.
Our topic is Artificial Intelligence and its intersections with faith, truth, trust and creativity. This will not be a debate, or a Q&A, it will be a guided conversation, where new questions and contemplation are encouraged as much as answers.
There is a promotional code available - to receive it, email ecochurch@sjp.org.uk
Click here for full details and registration.
|
|
|
|
|
If we take a leaf from the pages of Nature, which are about diversity and equilibrium, we can learn how to go forward. If we follow her example and are maturely sensitive enough to the differences that make up our human race, and appreciate how human life is enriched by its different people, beliefs and cultures, we can start to find ways of living peacefully with one another and working together for the betterment of all.
~ Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston).
Quotation from Rivers of Green Wisdom: Exploring Christian and Yogic Earth Centred Spirituality by Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston).
Fourth title in the GreenSpirit book series, which is a low-cost series that offers ebook editions ‘free’ for members of GreenSpirit.
For more details of this book visit the GreenSpirit Book Series web page here.
Or find out about the whole book series on the facebook page here
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
|
Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus
with Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz
Saturday 30th November, 2pm-4pm
Event run by CANA
Click here for full details of this event.
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
|
Veganic Summit
Free online event
8-10 November, 2024
Learn from leading experts in vegan organic gardening and farming
https://veganicsummit.com/
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
|
Space to Emerge
https://www.spacetoemerge.com/
Friday 2nd to Monday 5th May 2025
Super early-bird tickets are on sale now!
Run by 'The Way of the Buzzard'.
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
GreenSpirit
137 Ham Park Road, Forest Gate, London
United Kingdom
|
|
You received this email because you signed up on our website or joined GreenSpirit.
|
|
|
|
|
