Next Meeting - August 28th & Previous Minutes
Next Meeting St Peter and Frances Church hall, Plas Avenue, Prestatyn, LL19 9NH for Wed 28th 6.30pm - 8pm. Sheila and I will bring tea/coffee etc.
Previous Minutes
20th July Open Agor meeting at Clare and Mark’s house Actions Find out which date is most suitable for the next meet up- 21st or 28th August? at 7pm in the hall of Prestatyn Catholic Church. Sheila and Charles to collect the Prestatyn church hall key from Fr Terry. Please can anyone planning to invite extra people let us know who they plan to invite so we can have a list. Next session, we will plan 3 simple sessions, where we can invite a few additional people and begin to expand the group in the following meet ups. E.G. Weaving a tapestry as a whole group could be a good activity within the few weeks. Minutes We opened with a song being played, called “Song of our maker”, sung by Aled Jones and Sami Yusuf. This song is a fusion of Christian and Islamic style music.
Dates for interviews with Carol, Emily and Clare and Mark were then discussed. We watched a video Cosmic Eye Which zoomed out from a person to the whole universe, then back in to the microscopic level and right down to the parts which make up an atom.
We began discussing spirituality, with the song and video in mind. Carol O recommended the books Empire land and Empire world by Sathnam Sangheera, which reveal the dark side of the British empire, but also cover many theological themes in Carol O’s opinion. Carol B mentioned she enjoyed watching Simon Reeve’e’s travel programme where he went along the Yangste River, and showed how China is one of the rare places where Christianity is growing. We discussed the importance of giving and acting in a loving way, but also how you need to protect yourself from burning out too. Carol B described this as how you need to put your own O2 mask on first before helping others in an emergency on a plane.
Carol O talked about delayed gratification, and how this has been lost in younger generations due to the immediate nature of modern technology. We discussed how waiting can be good for our mental health, as there is time to look forward to things, and the “specialness” of things is not lost. Sheila felt that we tend to always look for the next thing as a form of escape. Clare and Carol B thought lockdown was good for slowing the pace of life.
Emily and Charles questioned whether we are less grateful when we have so much, and that things like religion tend to flourish where there is hardship perhaps more because there is a greater appreciation for what religion can give. Emily mentioned how atheists and agnosics search for spirituality and meaning in different ways, for example through meditation and mindfullness. Carol O felt that these practices have always existed, but have been labelled as something new for the modern day. We discussed how easy it can be to become detached from the bigger picture, both outside and inside religious institutions. There is a longing for spiritual experiences, and even atheists can feel a sense of spiritual connection in places like churches.
We discussed grace and how as we open up to invite more people to the group, we need to extend grace and a space without judgement to newcomers. Charles feels the group is a place for people hurt by the church, who want to talk about thier experiences but no longer feel they can go to church.