About
This is a collaboration between Field Church and St. Batholomews, Failand.
We meet at the Ashton Hill Plantation on the third Sunday of each month at 16.00.
Our intention is to create a space for people to come together among the trees and reconnect with themselves, each other and nature, in doing so connecting with God. Put simply we hope it will be a space to breathe deeply.
We do not seek to replace church. These couple of hours each month although flowing from the Christian tradition will not resemble a church service.
The Franciscans engaged with nature as though it were the first Bible, after all each of us is an expression and extension of it. God is revealed in the natural environment, there spirit burns but is not consumed. Moses removed his sandals before a burning bush and we strike out monthly in the possibility that all ground is sacred and a place of encounter.
The general pattern of the afternoon will be a variation on the following;
- Conversation and welcome in the car park as people arrive
- Socially walk together along the main path to a small track for 10 minutes or so at a slow pace.
- At a specific point along the track a collective pause, perhaps a simple prompt or reflection and then a 5 minute silent walk to the clearing. This silence can be used for contemplation, fascination or prayer.
- A chance to share what that simple experience of walking was like as we sit in a circle and prepare a fire.
- Approximately 20 minutes of a led reflective activity. This could take the form of poetry, natural art, bushcraft or another creative response to our surroundings.
- Simple snack or hot drink prepared on the fire.
- Walk back together, again the first short section in quiet.
Everyone is welcome and we hope we can sensitively facilitate an open, inclusive and accessible experience for all that attend. The only practical barrier to this is a short walk along a well trodden path to a clearing in the woods. Similarly the seating available is only logs or the floor.
We will endevour to do this come rain or shine with the exception of unsafe weather. This blog will be updated if a session is cancelled.
What to bring
- Warm clothes and waterproofs
- Water and a snack
- Openness, expectancy, curiosity and kindness
'One God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness'
Ephesians 4:6
.JPG)
