Our February Faithshare will be a larger Faithshare Event, to celebrate World Interfaith Harmony Week. It will take place on Wednesday 15th February, 7.30 p.m., in the William Stout Room, Quaker Meeting House, Lancaster. The event will continue our `Faith and the Elements’ theme with an exploration of `Faith and Earth’. We shall be looking both at the significance of the element of `earth’ in the beliefs and practices of our different faith traditions; and at how our personal faith and our different faith traditions inform our understanding of our relationship with Earth – our planet, our home.
Holocaust Memorial Day itself is Friday 27th January. As in past years, Lancaster will be holding a commemoration candlighting service on Thursday 26th January at 6.30 p.m., in the Memorial Gardens behind the Town Hall in Lancaster.
In advance of this commemoration there will be other events. An interesting current work by local artist Catriona Stamp,` (Dis)Placement: Mapping Identity’ will be on exhibition at the Dukes Theatre, Moor Lane, Lancaster from 9th – 29th January.
On Wednesday 18th January, at 6.00 p.m., The Dukes Theatre will be showing `Oranges and Sunshine’, a film about the forced migration of children to Australia.
Following Holocaust Memorial Day, there will be a dialogue on anti-semitism at the Priory Church, Lancaster, 2pm on Saturday 28th January, and a commemorative service at the Priory Church at 7pm, with speaker Margie Tolstoy.
January, Thursday 19th January, 7.30 p.m, Meeting Room 2, Quaker Meeting House, Lancaster.
Continuing our exploration of `Faith and the Elements’, our January Faithshare will focus on `Faith and Water’. What is the role of water in our different faith beliefs, traditions and practices? How does water connect with our personal faith and spiritual lives?
As always, how we explore the theme is deliberately kept open to wide and flexible interpretation. We welcome your contributions in sharing prayers, poems, songs, artwork and artefacts, reflections, stories and traditions, personal recollections; and especially your presence in joining with us, sharing the space and the spiritual connections within the group. Please do come along if you can.
Monday 12th December, starting at 7.30 p.m., Room 2, Friends Meeting House, Lancaster.
We shall be starting our exploration of the `Faith and the Elements’ theme, with a focus on `Faith and Fire’. What roles (if any) does Fire play in the beliefs, stories, traditions and practices of our various faith traditions? What is the symbolic relationship between Fire and the Divine or the spiritual in our faiths? Does reflecting or meditating upon the elements (Air, Water, Fire & Earth) and upon Fire, in particular, assist us in drawing closer to our sense of the Divine in our personal faiths and lives?
Sunday 11th December, 8.00 a.m – 1.30 p.m, at the Salt Ayre Sports Centre.
Faith In Lancaster is very short of funds and dependent upon donations and fund-raising to continue and to be able to organise and hold future Faithshare meetings and events.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
*Please donate your unwanted clean clothing and bedding, books, toys, bric-a-brac, CDs, DVDs, Video and cassette tapes, cooking utensils, crockery, glassware etc, etc. for us to sell.
*Please offer to help collect items and transport to the Salt Ayre Sports Centre (bring items through the entrance to the left of the Centre building from 5.30 – 7pm on Saturday 10th December; and from 6.30 a.m. on Sunday 11th December).
*Please offer to help on our stall `on the day’.
And, of course, please come along and buy items we are selling to help swell our funds!
N.B. Please contact Heather Bennett on 0798 155 0542 with your offers of items for the sale or to help with collection and/or on the stall.
Idea for December Faithshare Event – What do you think of the idea of holding a Faithshare Bring and Buy, Swap and Share, Trash ‘n’ Treasure, Gift Fayre or the like in December? This would be a way of raising some funds for Faith in Lancaster and/or a local charity, whilst giving us all an opportunity to rid ourselves of unwanted `clutter’, pick up gifts or things we need from the things other people have discarded (“one person’s trash is another person’s treasure” and “there’s no such thing as rubbish; just stuff that hasn’t found the right home yet”). So far this is just an idea, and I would be grateful for your thoughts on whether this is something you would like to attend and, perhaps, help organise (either in the planning stage, or `on the day’ or both); or if you have an idea for something else you would rather see us do for Faithshare in December.
Faith in Lancaster Faithshare Event for Interfaith Week
FAITH & ART
Thursday 24th November
at 7.30 p.m.
William Stout Room
Friends Meeting House, Lancaster
(LA1 1TX)
An opportunity for you to bring Artwork and Artefacts that reflect your faith tradition and/or have personal significance for your own faith. A Faithshare where we can share in `show and tell’ sessions, learn more about each others’ faith traditions through their relationship with art, and enjoy the display of beautifu and meaningful artworks, artefacts, designs and textiles.
After the Faithsare, a sharing of vegetarian refreshments - contributions welcome.
Our next Faithshare meeting will be on Thursday 27th October. It will be held in Room 2, Quaker Meeting House, Lancaster and the meeting will start at 7.30 p.m. Room 2 is on the ground floor, through the door at the far end of the entrance hall and is wheelchair accessible.
We did not agree a topic for this meeting at our last Faithshare, and we have now completed the series of topics within the `Life Cycle’ theme. We have a couple of suggestions for themes to cover a series of future Faithshare meetings: one is `Words’, with different Faithshare meetings to explore poetry and songs, praises and homages, stories, teachings and sermons etc; another is `Faith and The Elements’, a series of 4 Faithshares, one each on fire/air/water/earth (or the 4 `holy creatures’ mentioned above of sun/wind/water/soil).
I would like to suggest that we use our Faithshare meeting on 27th October to consider these two themes, also any other themes that anyone would like to suggest (either at the meeting itself or, in advance, by sending me an email with your suggestion) and reaching an agreement on future theme or themes. It could also be a space for us to do a kind of `spiritual stocktaking’ – to remember what we have explored and shared and learnt over the past year-and-a-bit of regular monthly Faithshare meetings and other Faith in Lancaster events; and perhaps also to discuss in more detail what we would like to see or contribute to in the `Faith and Art’ Faithshare event for Interfaith Week in November. I hope that you will be able to come to the Faithshare on the 27th and participate in deciding on what we would like future Faithshares to cover and how we want to explore these themes and topics.
Our September Faithshare will be held on Wednesday 21st September at 7.30 pm in the Main Meeting Room on the Ground Floor of Lancaster Friends Meeting House.
Our topic will be the culmination of our Faithshare `Life Cycle’ theme. We have visited `birth’, `rites of passage’ and `commitments in adult life’. Our final topic within our theme will be `Death and Beyond’ – or should that be `Death – and Beyond?’ – or `Death? – and Beyond’ – or `Death? And? Beyond?’… ???
Please note change of room at the venue from that given in July newsletter. We have been able to secure the ground floor Meeting Room for our meeting, which means that it will be fully accessible for wheelchair users and others with mobility problems or who have difficulties climbing stairs.
An evening walk amongst some of the sacred sites of Lancaster. We shall meet up at 7.00 pm at the Quaker Meeting House in Lancaster (outside the front door if weather fine, inside the entrance hall if it is raining), where we hope to commence with a short talk from the Buddhist group who meet there on Monday evenings (to be confirmed), and some details about the development of Quakerism in Lancaster and the history of the Meeting House we shall be standing in. We shall then walk across to the Priory Church, which the Vicar has kindly agreed to open up so we can look around inside and to talk to us about his church.
Our route will then take us past the two Mosques, on Fenton Street and Blades Street, and to the Trinity United Reform Church, which we are also hoping will be open for us to see inside and hear from the Curate about the church. After that we’ll walk via all or some of (depending upon time and weather conditions) the Buddhist Centre on King Street, Baptist Church on Nelson Street, Catholic Cathedral, Palatine Hall, Methodist Chapel on Sulyard Street and finish our tour just after 9.00 pm at the Sultan Restaurant for a welcome sit down, refreshments and brief reflection on our journey.
Stuart Langhorn will act as our guide, and lead the commentary about the different sites we shall be visiting and passing as we make our way about the town. If you aren’t able to get to the Quaker Meeting House for 7.00 pm, please do join us at the Priory at 7.30 or catch up with us along the way.
