Annual Conference has been cancelled see News item below.

Coronavirus: Resources for meditators

We have set up a page with suggestions to help you stay connected with other meditators while we follow the guidelines on managing the coronavirus.  On this page we have shared communications from Fr Laurence, the Spiritual Director of WCCM worldwide, and from the UK leadership team so that they reach as many meditators as possible.

 

What is Christian Meditation?

 

IMG 4123 2Meditation is simple, being simple means being ourselves. It means passing beyond self consciousness, self analysis and self rejection. Meditation is a universal spiritual practice which guides us into this state of prayer, into the prayer of Christ. It brings us to silence, stillness and simplicity by a means that is itself silent, still and simple.

Laurence Freeman Your Daily Practice

 

The method involves the repetition of a single word faithfully and lovingly during the time of meditation. This is a very ancient Christian way of prayer that was recovered for modern Christians by the Benedictine monk John Main (1926 -1982).

John Main recovered this way of bringing the mind to rest in the heart through his study of the teachings of the first Christian monks, the Desert Fathers, and of John Cassian (4th century AD). It is in the same tradition as The Cloud of Unknowing, written in England in the 14th century.

John Main's legacy inspired the formation of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM), and his work is being carried on by Father Laurence Freeman, also a Benedictine monk. The WCCM continues John Main’s vision of restoring the contemplative dimension to the common life of Christians and engaging in the common ground shared with the secular world and other religions.

The Community has its International Centre in Bonnevaux, France, but is a 'monastery without walls', a family of national and emerging communities in over a hundred countries, each with local Christian meditation groups, supporting meditators on a weekly or monthly basis, in homes, parishes, offices, hospitals, prisons, schools and colleges - pretty well everywhere that people live and seek. The World Community is ecumenical and promotes unity through its dialogue with both Christian churches and other faiths.

To communicate and nurture meditation as passed on through the teaching of John Main in the Christian Tradition in the spirit of serving the unity of all. WCCM Mission Statement

Individual meditators and groups can offer a range of support for those enquiring about Christian meditation. For local groups, see Search UK Christian Meditation Groups or contact your local group leader or regional coordinator. 

This website provides information about the WCCM UK community. For information about the work of the communities in other parts of the world, see www.wccm.org.

News

 

In Brief...

Coronavirus: Resources for meditators

We have set up a page with suggestions to help you stay connected with other meditators while we follow the guidelines on managing the coronavirus.  On this page we have shared communications from Fr Laurence, the Spiritual Director of WCCM worldwide, and from the UK leadership team so that they reach as many meditators as possible.

Event Cancellations

If you are an organiser of an event listed in our calendar and have cancelled or postoned it, please let us know at events@christianmeditation.org.uk so we can update your entry.

 

UK Office Closed - Roisin and Elena working from home

At very short notice on 18th March the UK office was closed for the foreseeable future.  Please be aware that whilst Roisin and Elena are currently able to work from home, any postal mail will not be responded to for some time, probably several months.  Consequently please communicate by email to uk@wccm.org and if you have recently sent a message or invoice by post please resend by email.

If there are any payments you wish to make, do so using the online donation facility https://www.christianmeditation.org.uk/index.php/become-a-friend-of-wccm/donate and please include a message (provided within the donation facility) saying what it is for.

 

Summer Newsletter: Deadline for Articles and Events

The final date for articles and events to reach is for the Summer newsletter is 1 April.

Please send articles to uknewsletter@wccm.org and events to events@christianmeditation.org.uk

 

Lent start 1300x822

Resources for Lent

The World Community for Christian Meditation send out a daily Reflections for Lent email.  If you already receive the Daily Wisdom email you can add Receive Seasonal Reflections to your list by clicking on the change preferences link at the end of a recent email.  If you would like to subscribe, see the Online Resources page.  Select Receive Seasonal Reflections (Lent/Christmas) to receve the daily Lent Reflection.   You may also be interested in Daily Wisdom and the Weekly Teachings and Readings.

Reflections for Lent are also available on the UK website here. and on Fr Laurence's blog here.

 

 

 

UK Conference: Touch the Earth Lightly

200612 conference thumbnailCancelled

We are so sorry to share the news that our UK National Conference weekend 12th to the 14th June, has been cancelled.

For those who have booked, there will of course be a full reimbursement.

It is sad that so many of our WCCM events, retreats and meditation groups are not taking place, especially at this time of isolation and need.  But the community is reaching out in new and different ways. If you are on our mailing list, we will have been in touch to let you know about the on line support at local, regional, national and international level. If you haven’t received an email or letter from us and would like more details, please look on our website or contact the UK office (ukadmin@wccm.org).

We will be holding another UK Conference in June 2021 and I am sure there will be so much to share and reflect upon.

Stay safe and take care of yourself

Janet Robbins

And members of the conference organising team

The Blue Marble:Eastern Hemisphere image by Robert Simmon is from the NASA Earth Observatory project.

 

 

 

 

The School of Meditation 2020 Events

201002 ETWAutumn Essential Teaching Weekend

Friday 2 to Sunday 4 October at The Briery Centre, Ilkely, West Yorkshire
Led by: Joanne Caine and Julie Roberts. 

Have you been meditating in the John Main tradition for more than a year? Do you feel you would like to grow in your understanding of your meditation practice and be more confident about passing it on to others?

An Essential Teaching Weekend is not designed as a retreat but as a participative weekend with presentations by teachers in the community, group discussion and practical exercises. We look together at the history of the tradition passed on by John Main, the essence of the practice, and psychological aspects of the journey. We also think about how to give an introductory talk and the sort of questions people ask when they begin.

The style of the weekend is relaxed and informative and takes place at the Briery Retreat Centre. Situated at the ‘foot of Ilkley Moor’ in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, the comfortable accommodation is mainly single rooms with shared bathrooms - we are unable to guarantee an ensuite room.

We would like all who want to come to be able to do so and have a fund for bursaries. If you wish to come but it is beyond your means, please contact us to see how we can help. We also help with travel costs if needed.

Cost £85 per person. For an application form please email jacqrussell3@gmail.com 01296 488450

This information is available as a flyer.

200511 Greenhouse School Retreat flyer 2020 small

School of Meditation School Retreat

Led by Julie Roberts with Jacqueline Russell and Liz Watson

Monday 11 – Sunday 17 May 2020

The Greenhouse Christian Centre, in Poole, Dorset

The School Retreat is a six day residential intensive. It is suitable for people who have been meditating seriously for some time in our tradition, and have some experience of integrating meditation into daily life.

It forms a very natural progression from the Essential Teaching Weekend and offers a time of silence and stillness with a daily flow of meditation, a short talk and a regular meeting with one of the retreat leaders. It offers a profound, integrated experience of both sides of the spiritual journey of meditation – of solitude and fellowship, and gently opens participants to explore how they are called to share the gift.

The retreat will be held at The Greenhouse Christian Centre, in Poole, Dorset which offers warm and comfortable accommodation in single occupancy rooms. There is limited availability of ensuite rooms which will be allocated according to need.

Cost £550.00  Bursaries to help with the cost of attending this retreat are available – please ask.  For an application form please email: jacqrussell3@gmail.com or telephone 01296 488450

This information is available as a flyer

Sharing The Gift Of Meditation – Your Opportunity To Apply for a Grant

The World Community for Christian Meditation exists simply to share the gift of meditation, a gift it received through the teaching of John Main.

We are keen for more people to find out about meditation, help them develop their own personal and group practices and through this, reach out to the wider world. Through a generous legacy from Eileen Cox, a dedicated member of a group in Ealing, West London, we are inviting community members and organisations to apply for grants that relate to the following three objectives:

  1. To promote the understanding and practice of meditation. For example, is there a particular group of people you want to introduce to meditation? How can you do that?
  2. To encourage meditators to deepen their practice. For example, do you have ideas for helping people persevere and go deeper?
  3. To reach out to all parts of society in order to share the gifts that meditation brings. For example, do you particularly want to take meditation out to people and places beyond the reach of churches, or where traditional language isn’t readily understood.

Grants are available from £100 to £5,000 or even more.  If you are interested in applying for a grant, there are details and instructions here.

We have partnered with the Church Urban Fund (CUF) to administer the grants using their extensive experience in running grant management systems and we were delighted to discover that they share our values when Paul Hackwood, the Executive Chair of CUF, included the following in a message to us:

Silent contemplation provides us with the place where we can be still enough to create a place of reflection and steadiness, which has much greater benefits that endless activity. A contemplative sprit and an active heart provide exactly the foundation for a changed world. … With all this in mind, it is with great pleasure that we are now working with the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) to help foster silent prayer through their networks and ours, encouraging existing meditators to share the gift of meditation with others with the assistance of the grant fund.  

Read the full letter here.

About Christian meditation

 

Why Christians Meditate

Meditation as Prayer

Most Christian people know very well that prayer is not just asking God, or Jesus, for help in times of need, danger or distress, although that is not a bad start.   Balanced Christian prayer also includes thanksgiving for blessings received, of which the public expression is Eucharist (for thanksgiving is what Eucharist means).  This naturally leads to adoration of God, and to interceding for others as much as praying for ourselves.   Very often Christian prayer may begin with a simple recognition of failure or sin, and so include owning up to our failures (confession) and a resolution to make amends or do better in future.  These five aspects of prayer are sometimes summed up by the acronym PACTS (Petition, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication).

But this is by no means all that is meant by Christian prayer.

 

The Stages of the Meditation Journey

Meditation is a way of breaking through from a world of illusion into the pure light of reality

John Main

Looking upThe world of illusion that John Main refers to in this statement is the world we build up out of our thoughts. Many of us equate who we are with what we think. Who do you think you are? The image we have of ourselves, the image we have of others, and the world we live in is made up out of thoughts: our own thoughts and, often, the thoughts of others we have unthinkingly made our own.

 

 

 

 

Meditation and Spirituality

True seekers and travellers into the realms of spirit will inevitably discover that at the heart of any serious spiritual tradition there exists a deep, inner path which is contemplative in nature.   Within the contemplative core, there are also recognised stages of spiritual life and growth which the traveller encounters, and is hopefully helped to embrace, as their journey of pilgrimage to the centre continues.

In this respect, contemplation, or meditation, is very far from being just a Christian thing - it is the essential key to all deep and true spirituality and the ultimate answer to all unreality. To quote Rowan Williams, 'To learn contemplative practice is to learn what we need to live truthfully, honestly and lovingly - and is therefore a deeply revolutionary matter'.

 

Mindfulness and Christian Meditation

Looking inward, looking outwardMindfulness and Christian Meditation are both widely practised nowadays and have much in common. We are all aware of the stress and bustle of modern life and seek some escape into a state of peace or freedom from stress. We might be aware that we can find this within ourselves in special moments. Through the meditation practices of Mindfulness and Christian Meditation we can find a way of stabilising these special moments and integrating them into our daily life. For some who have followed a Mindfulness course it may be important to develop this in a way which acknowledges the spiritual and they may choose to do this through Christian Meditation.

 

More on Christian Meditation and Mindfulness

Having written previously IMG 1323smlabout the similarities between Christian meditation and mindfulness – what they hold in common – I feel moved to complete the picture by saying something about what distinguishes them.

Mindfulness, which derives from Buddhism, exists in many forms and is practised in different ways. It has for example been taken up by the NHS to help support people who are emerging from episodes of depression and help prevent relapse. Others may seek to practise Mindfulness to achieve better mental clarity, to ease pressure in a stressful world, or to find a better balance in their lives.

 

The Complementary Arts of Infinite Tai Chi and Christian Meditation

Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river

Taoist Proverb

Be still like a mountain and flow like a great riverIf you're looking for a way to reduce stress, consider Tai Chi. It is sometimes described as "meditation in motion" because it promotes serenity through gentle movements, connecting the mind and body and setting the spirit free in dance like expression. Originally developed in ancient China for self-defence, Tai Chi and its sister practice of Chi Kung ( energy cultivation ) evolved into a graceful form of exercise that's now predominantly used in the West for stress reduction and to help a variety of other health conditions.

 

 

Yoga and Christian Meditation

Finding balance with yoga and Christian MeditationThe practice of Yoga predates Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism and this path to wholeness has been interpreted over the centuries and throughout the world in many different ways. You may attend a class where there are candles, joss sticks, chanting and references to ancient Hindu texts. The teacher may talk of his or her own guru and the lineage of their tradition. On the other hand, you may be in a very hot room doing very strenuous exercise. Of course, there is every variation in between. It is important to find a class where you are comfortable and at ease, both physically and spiritually and where the discipline supports your own journey to wholeness.

 

Links to more about Christian meditation