dekhomai

if you visited us at the london mind body spirit festival...

it was great to meet with you, talk, pray, explore the jesus deck, massage your hands or feet and make a prayer cord with you (whichever you did). a few people were asking about the groups involved in dekhomai expressing interest in going along to a community in london exploring spirituality from the christian tradition.

i (jonny) am involved in grace, an artistic creative community in ealing, west london. we always meet on the second saturday of the month with a cafe afterwards. it's very chilled and informal. the next grace is going to be a grass labyrinth mown in the grass outside st marys church in south ealing. if you've never walked a labyrinth it's a wonderful walking prayer meditation. there are some photos here of a previous year. it's on saturday june 13 8pm. directions are on the web site.

another group in london helping on the stand are moot who meet in the city. they also have a group quest  exploring spirituality who met once a month in a pub.

and the third london group are based in greenwich and currently have no name and meet in someone's front room! but if you are interested in that leave a comment and i can put you in touch.

a bit further out there was one person from contemplative fire who have a number of groups in places like wycombe, hemel hempstead, brighton... and one person from gillingham who has a small community just being started.

if you are elsewhere in the country and travelled in but want to find something of a similar flavour again leave a comment and we'll try and suggest something.

london mind body spirit festival in may

we'll be at the london mind body spirit festival in may again. we'll be offering a mix of spirituality from the christian tradition.

foot and hand massage
healing prayer
prayer bracelets
the jesus deck
listening
lectio divina

the popular postcards will also be available and evwrything is free!

celtic prayer

the second new postcard written by tess ward who will also be leading a celtic meditation in the meditation room on weds at 2pm. the text of the postcard is here

tourists to pilgrims

one of our two new postcards...

the text is here

we're back at the london mind body spirit festival next week

we're back at the london mind body spirit festival - come and see us...

next week we will have a stand - booth 43. we will be offering spiritual resources from the christian tradition to visitors. we often get asked what dekhomai means - it means the welcoming place. we want to provide a space of welcome in the busyness of the festival, a listening ear and a space for prayer.

at our stand everything is free...

be listened to and prayed for
receive prayer for healing with the anointing of oil and laying on of hands
make a dekhomai prayer cord to help you pray
have a go on the Jesus deck to see how Christ's story connects with your life
sit down, chill and have a foot or hand massage
receive a blessing

our very popular dekhomai postcards will be back with two additions to the set - see the photo album for the images and text from the cards...

we'll also be leading two meditations in the meditation room on wednesday and sunday at 2pm

Sense Making Faith

I was at the launch of Sense Making Faith yesterday in London. Sense Making Faith is a fantastic resource for people on a spiritual journey, it uses sight, sound, smell, touch, taste and imagination to open up some of the mysteries of God.

There is also a website loaded with some fantastic resources - see: spiritualjourneys.org.uk There's poetry, film study guides, book study guides, reflections on art, bible studies and essays There is so much, a really rich resource to dig into...

How to pray for Riches...

... some more interesting resources from Bruce Stanley via ReJesus, five "How to pray" sheets...

• How to Pray
• How to Pray for Riches
• How to Pray for Direction
• How to Pray for Wholeness

Technorati Tags: Media, Prayer, Spirituality, Worship

Putting out into deep water

At the Manchester Mind Body Spirit fair this weekend we'll be joined, on Sunday, by Colin Brown - an artist based in Sheffield. He'll have the painting below in the stand for people to reflect and meditate on.

Here is the meditation that we'll be using at the festival:

• Let yourself take in the painting

• Notice colours, textures, areas of light or shade
• Where do you feel particularly drawn?
• What does it feel like?
• Take time to be with what is emerging for you – don’t rush!
• Try not to analyse – just notice how you feel

Reflecting

• Notice the effect the painting has had on you
• Your experience is your prayer. It is your response to God, who reaches out to you with love.
• Dare to trust that God is in your experience with you
• What might God be saying to you?
• How might you respond? This is praying!

Technorati Tags: Mind Body Spirit

Pub Spirituality in Westminster

Pleased to say that the Pub:Spirituality sessions have begun in Westminster, with a discussion about love and hope in the luxurious surroundings of the Mill Bank Lounge of the City Inn.  Discussions centred on love being a call to self-less giving in the hope that this transforms the world for the better.   We talked a lot about how living this way requires centring or an external locus in a higher benevolent power.  We explored how people who were more contemplative - practicsed this form of higher calling to love when it costs, seemed to have more peace and were fully themselves, and that people who were selfish - often were unhealthy and not fully themselves.  For a list of the quotes we reflected on see the attached. Download quotes_on_love_hope.doc

In the next session we plan to explore the topical question: Why is hard to experience spirituality in an overly materialistic consumptive culture that leaves you frustrated?  If you are interested in attending these sessions and want more information see here or email

photos of the london 2007 festival

i have added a photo album from the 2007 london festival here...