‘Ice cream, prayers and beads’
Dear Friends
Welcome to Monday’s Companionship Email.
This week the University begins the final week of teaching and we all continue to discover novel ways to cope with lives in lockdown. For me, it was the simple joy of receiving a home delivery of Mint Choc Chip ice cream from Jannettas Gelateria that just made my Sunday a little bit more bearable! I do hope that many of you have found a rhythm to your week, although I must confess to asking Alexa what day it is quite often. We are all developing our own coping skills living through the trauma of this pandemic. So please be gentle with yourself and those you share your life with.
However you are managing and whatever you are doing to cope, please be assured that Donald and I are here to listen and support. We are available for a phone conversation or a team meeting. All are welcome to use the Chaplaincy and we are here to support any member of staff or student, regardless of religion, creed, denomination or philosophy of life.
Evening Prayer
Evening Prayer continues every day at 5pm with Pray with Sam and it would be wonderful if you could join me. Please let me know who you wish to be included in the daily prayers by emailing me [email protected].
This week our evening prayers come from Taizé.
The Taizé Community is an ecumenical Christian monastic fraternity in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France. It is composed of more than one hundred brothers, from Catholic and Protestant traditions, who originate from about thirty countries across the world. It was founded in 1940 by Brother Roger Schütz, a Reformed Protestant. Guidelines for the community’s life are contained in The Rule of Taizé written by Brother Roger and first published in French in 1954.
Taizé has become one of the world’s most important sites of Christian pilgrimage, with a focus on youth. Over 100,000 young people from around the world make pilgrimages to Taizé each year for prayer, Bible study, sharing, and communal work. Through the community’s ecumenical outlook, they are encouraged to live in the spirit of kindness, simplicity and reconciliation.
Many of you may be familiar with Taizé chants and music, with its worship style focused upon silence and song. When I was 18, I went on a pilgrimage to Taizé through the Diocese of Winchester. Quite simply, my life after that was never ever the same. Transformational and redemptive, that week is the reason I am here today as your Assistant Chaplain.
Please explore the website by using the link below and use the daily prayer and daily bible readings to inhabit the silence and peace of the place.
https://www.taize.fr/en_article5806.html
This simple prayer by Richard Rohr sums up the ethos of Taizé style worship and music:
‘Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us,
Choosing gratitude until we are grateful,
And praising God until we ourselves are an act of praise.’
And lastly from your Crafty (Assistant) Chaplain…
A bead in time…
A few years ago, my lovely daughter, always trying to find interesting and different presents for her mum, (although a handbag and a box of chocolates normally works), bought me a day’s training in bead work.
Going along to a wonderful brightly coloured workshop in Aberdeen one cold Saturday in January, I embarked upon my next adventure into the world of crafting. It was a great day surrounded by scary jewellry making tools, various thickness of wires along with beads made in every material in every colour and every size.
During our session we were taught techniques in how to make earrings, create necklaces and most importantly, fix them so that nothing fell off or was lost! It truly was one of the best birthday presents I have ever received.
For four hours I was fully submerged in this ‘other’ world of imagination and wonder. Deciding what to make, what colours to choose, what textures to use and what fixing and finishing to embellish it with, took my mind, heart and hands to another place that was a world away from being a parish priest.
It was pure indulgence and I delighted in it. Mind you, the necklace I created was ‘interesting’ to say the least but we all have to start somewhere! Since that first foray in to the world of beading, I now regularly make friends and family gifts of earrings which seem to have become my speciality.
There is nothing more joyous to me than a spare hour and some pocket money to spend in a shop that gives you a basket which you fill with various beads and baubles. It is like being let loose in a sweetshop but without the sugar rush!
So if any of you are thinking of taking up another craft, I can heartily recommend beading. There are loads of courses on line and, if you are really fortunate post-virus, get down to your local beading shop!
Be blessed, be a blessing and Happy Crafting!
Samantha
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