Convocation 2010
This page is available for photos and reports about Convocation 2010. You can read what others have to say on this page. To add your own comments you need to Login with your username and password.
To add your reflections, please use the Comments feature below (visible after Login).
During Convocation, we were invited to reflect on the question: "What does it mean to me to be part of the Interfaith Foundation?" It was decided to continue the opportunity to reflect and share on this question by opening up the discussion online. Click here to read what the Interfaith Foundation means to others, and share your responses.
To add your photos, please use the Photo Upload tool. All photographs Photographs display here.
For those who attended Convocation, the summary of your feedback is now attached.
Invocation on Community Arising - by Rev Lynne Sedgmore
In the presence of the Source of All,
Of Goddesses and Gods,
Honouring all faith traditions;
We gather in community
Feel their presence - Ministers and Students
Connecting in spirit to our gathering today.
We, who are phyically here, give thanks.
Universal love enfolds us now with light and fragrance at this Beltane time.
Individually and collectively
May we ferment our future
Through fire, union, fertility and a true new blossoming;
Remembering we are the breath of life,
Flowing from the fecund source
Of Male and Female both.
As we renew our vows in convocation space of spring time growth -
May we move beyond all fear,
May wounds be healed,
May power prove a blessing; and be shared,
May abundance and prosperity abound,
May we be unity and love.
This is a time to see and to be seen,
The world requires you now to let your brilliance shine and serve,
Your ministry rekindled in the Beltane fires,
Supported, blessed and strengthened by community.
Poems
More from the Tao: Not us - from Manow of Flame
When some put on robes and others bow down before them, is it already lost?
When some speak endlessly, while others sit wide-mouthed writing in notebooks, it is present?
When groups begin to look all alike, and combe their hair the same way and can be found doing identical things at a certain hour, is nothing happening?
(Manow of Flame)
Saints bowing to the Mountains - Hafiz
Do you know how beautiful you are?
I think not, my dear.
For as you talk of God
I see great parades with wildly colourful bands
Streaming from your mind and heart,
Carrying wonderful and secret messages
To every corner of this world.
I see saints bowing in the mountains
Hundreds of miles away
To the wonder of sounds
That break into light
From your most common words.
Speak to me of your mother,
Your cousins and your friends.
Tell me of squirrels and birds you know.
Awaken your legion of nightingales -
Let them soar wild and free in the sky
And begin to sing to God
Let's all begin to sing to God!
Do you know how beautiful you are?
Finding out a Joy - by Paul Matthews
As I walked out this May morning I heard a Blackbird calling from the wood
and there without a word the Bluebells spread and I said look at me you pure inquisitors
and this they did - their mute gaze finding out a joy I'd too long hidden from the view
and as the Blackbird carooled in the sunlit glade I wept for being seen through
Quotes
Blessed are the cracks, for they let in the Light.
Questions
What does it mean to me to be part of the Interfaith Foundation?
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| feedback summary.doc | 133 KB |
If you are an IMA member or Seminary student, please login to post comments.
Stone Circle ceremony poem
Please would you add this poem to the ones listed on the Convocation site (it's the poem we used to open the 'stone circle' ceremony with). Many thanks and sending you all love, Natasha
The first half of a poem by Galway Kinnell called 'St. Francis and the Sow':
The bud
stands for all things,
even for those that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on the brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing…
Galway Kinnell
Public Profile group notes
Present at the brainstorming session were Akasha Lonsdale, Ann Day, Becky Jones, Donald Watson, Dorota Owen and Philippa Chapman. William Jolly had to leave before this session and has since expressed interest in being part of the group.
Personal contacts which these ministers can already make use of
Glastonbury local radio (Philippa)
Radio Wiltshire (Akasha)
BBC local radio in Oxford - Sunday morning programmes (Ann)
Northern Lights Schools Conference (Dorota)
Publicity when marketing her book ‘Do I Kneel or Do I Bow’ (Akasha)
Ideas
Publications which might take articles on Interfaith ministers: Cygnus, Kindred Spirit, Resurgence, Caduceus, Saga, The Lady. (Caduceus has already published an article by Catherine Lucas. Does anyone have this?)
Introductory Days could be advertised in local (free) papers as well as in the above. (Ask ministers to take responsibility for this locally through i-Connect?)
Ministers working in chaplaincies could write about their work in publications that cater specifically for chaplains (from professional journals to newsletters) to increase awareness of Interfaith ministers among the various denominations.vid Cameron.)(And the same for funeral directors, so that the first time they meet one of us we are not a totally unknown quantity?) Seek suggestions/volunteers through i-Connect.
A new tv series on Modern Ritual? (contacts with BBC Oxford)
Make contact with Dating Agencies. (Becky has ideas on this.)
Use local MP somehow? (Ann’s MP is David Cameron.)
Collect positive feedback for advertising purposes. (e.g. via the website?)
e-Bay, Facebook, Twitter could have links from the IF website
Publicity through events, such as the ‘Walk of Faith’, being organised this summer by John Merrill (2010). Perhaps co-ordinate walking events around the country?
T-shirts with logo? Possible captions: ‘Many Ways, One Truth.’ ‘26,000,000 people believe but don’t belong.’ Interfaith calendar (cf Cygnus calendar)? Other ‘branded’ items to sell? Add to website?
Invite articles through i-Connect. e.g. Accounts of personal experiences as an interfaith minister which could be used more widely.
Share these ideas with ministers through i-Connect, to encourage and invite more active engagement with the public through appropriate channels.
Self-care and sustainability group
From Rodney Knights and others:
Self Care and Sustainability Group
Group Members: Neesa Copple (2008), Ulanah Morris (2006), Romany Buck (2011), Rodney Knights (2003)
Our Group met at the 2010 Convocation and discussed what we wanted from such a group. I think we all enjoyed the opportunity to meet up with people we had not met previously from different years and different locations recognizing too that we have much in common and a shared connection through the Interfaith Foundation.
One of the important attributes of this 'project' is to bring harmony and joyfulness into what we do. We recognized that there are issues with self care and sustainability and that one of the issues we identified was the feeling of let down or separateness that can occur after or during a deeply spiritual experience with other like minded people. It could be a retreat, some form of training, a workshop, a Convocation, a spiritual counseling session or many other experiences where we feel truly connected with others and our own inner guidance. A problem can be that on coming back into our normal environment, be that at home or work, we can sometimes lose that loving connection that was so real for each of us. We discussed how we might be able to help each other to remember, how to reconnect with love and truth when we have temporarily forgotten. How to experience the harmony and joy in all that we do.
We also talked about how to protect ourselves against stressful and negative energies when we are very open and perhaps rather porous after profound heart-opening experiences. This was something that members of our group resonated with and so we felt it important to name it without at this stage having any specific ideas on how to manage this situation.
The very fact of joining together and discussing this with each other at the Convocation was a very good start. We are now in email contact with each other and are starting to check in with each other. We also recognized that there were particular gifts that each of us has that may be helpful to others in the group and one of the group members has already given of her particular skills to others within the group.
So at the moment we are sharing through email and what will happen next we do not know but it feels as if we are all open to ideas that can support and sustain ourselves,
We are open to suggestions from other Interfaith Ministers and Students who would also like to support Self Care and Sustainability within our community.
Rodney Knights
Self Care and Sustainability Group
Self care & sustainability
Please count me in, thank you, Rebecca Young
Notes from Q&A session with trustees and staff
Rob MacLachlan referred to Lynne Sedgmore’s earlier talk on ‘A New Arising for IFF’ where she asked two questions of those there:
1) What do I bring to this organisation?
2) What does being part of the community mean to me?
Referring to the second question he asked the community to break into groups with a partner and reflect on what it truly means to be a part of this community.
Questions arising from Trustees/Staff report:
Annie Blampied:
Legal registration of marriages – requested that the IFF as a body lobby the Government for a change in law to be in line with Scotland, so that IFF ministers in England can also complete the legalities of a wedding ceremony too.
Tim Pickles responded saying that her concern was noted but he had recently followed it up and there were no plans for the Government to change the law. However, there was discussion within the group as to how this might be overcome and Lynne Sedgmore said that she would be happy to be part of a sub-group to look further into this.
Stephen Wright:
Requested that the Trustees put a policy in place for burnout/spiritual crisis.
Anne Baeppler:
Requested that an annual retreat, as well as the Convocation, be considered, offering community spiritual gathering/soul food – no business
Susan Mashkes:
As there are proposed laws in the UK to have all counsellors licensed in 2011, what issues surround this if we call ourselves spiritual counsellors.
Nicola Coombe responded – we will call ourselves something else and encouraged us all to stay engaged with the political world.
Greetings message from Milton Keynes
This is the text of the message of greeting from Milton Keynes
As Chair of the Milton Keynes Partnership, the growth and regeneration agency for Milton Keynes, I am delighted that you are holding you annual convocation in our wonderful city and in the inspiring surroundings of the Camphill community. I understand you have declared Milton Keynes a City of Light. I like that description very much, as the organisation I chair, together with our partners in the city are attempting to bring new energy, light and creativity to MK.
Milton Keynes is one of the most culturally and spiritually diverse new communities in the UK. Our recent success in being chosen as an official 'candidate host city in England 2018 World Cup bId' was based on our aspiration to be more active in interfaith dialogue and service. The fact that you are all here, as interfaith ministers, bringing your energy, love, service and ministry to MK is contributing to our aspirations and I thank you for that. I was fortunate to have attended your ordination ceremony in 2002 which I found beautiful, moving and deeply graceful.
I myself am a Quaker and involved in a range of interfaith work locally and national. I am active in the Milton Keynes Council of Faiths, chair the Further Education sector's National Council for Faiths and Beliefs and in July 2007, together with Lynne Sedgmore, then Chief Executive of the Centre for Leadership, lead the national inquiry into faiths in further education which resulted in the publication of the report " Making Space for Faith"
I really am sorry I cannot be with you today but I am with you fully in spirit and prayer. Very sincere thanks for gracing the community in Milton Keynes with your spiritual presence, ministry and worship this weekend.
I wish you every success. May the renewal of your vows nourish you all as you prepare for the next phase of the Interfaith Foundations work.
Dr. Ann Limb
Notes from the Wealth Prosperity and Spirituality group
Posted on behalf of Rev Sonya Leite The Wealth Prosperity and Spirituality group - we discussed our "stuff" around these topics and prayed for ourselves and the collective. We hold for transformation and financial freedom for us all as a business and as working ministers in our lives and the communities we work in.
Thank you from the host team
From Shirley, Terrence and Dorota ...
As the ‘holding team’ for last weekend’s convocation we would like to express our delight with the entire event- what a wonderfully rich and rewarding experience this has been for us three! At Convocation 2009, we felt that offering to host the next convocation was something we could contribute to our community despite having no idea even of a suitable venue. We just knew that we wanted to do it, even though none of us actually live in MK, we were not part of a strong group and one of us lives 400 miles from the other two. We would like to acknowledge how beautifully we have been supported by all the people who have joined us in co-creating this event. They took the seeds of ideas that were offered and then created contributions that way exceeded our own imagining. We experienced Convocation as an expression of a truly vibrant community enjoying the flow of offering and receiving, sharing and co-creating. During this time many more seeds were offered in many ways, and we look forward to seeing what grows out of this precious time we spent together. So our heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined us at Convocation 2010 and to anyone who might be thinking of being part of the holding team for 2011 … we would urge you to explore what might be possible. Thank you all for your support. Blessings on us all, Shirley,Terence and Dorota
Personal mindmap of the Convocation
I'm writing this the day after the convocaton - and it's hard to know where to start.........So here are just some of my responses/memories/thoughts/feelings about two days of great richness & intensity:
Huge joy & pleasure at connecting with old friends.
A vivid experience of continuity: where we have come from, where we are now & where we are going (there were a wonderful number of first & second year students present).
The impact of re-stating my vow both in a small group (where we had been invited to re-visit our journey to the seminary, through the training & to the present time of our ministry) & then bathing all the present students with our vows whispered in unison, as they stood in a circle around the altar enclosed by the larger circle of ordained ministers.
Sharing some of our convocation with residents of the CamphillCommunity - very apt bearing in mind that the theme of the weekend was Being Seen.
Chanting the Beltane Chant which was new to most of us & re-visiting Let My Heat Reflect They Light, Lord, May The Blessings of God Rest Upon You & Jubilate Deo.
I feel strengthened by my experience & also proud & privileged to belong to the Interfaith Community.
Many many thanks to Dorota, Shirley & Terence for giving birth to this Convocation!
Photographs
I've tried uploading a few of my pictures here, but it won't let me. All the pictures Itook are on my Facebook profile, and if anyone would like any of the originals, please do email me. My address is - thenicepeople@outsidetheasylum.eu
As this was my first Convocation, I didn't know what to expect, but I was struck at how much I felt part of the family, straight away. I now realise that whilst in the Seminary, I am guided to explore and encouraged and supported in the development of my ministry. WhatI hadn't realised is that the search doesn't really stop at Ordination, in fact, it's only the End of the Beginning.
I also realised (to paraphrase JFK) that my relationship to the Foundation is "ask not what the Foundation can do for me, ask instead, what can I do for the Foundation?" I feel very blessed to be part of the community, and I intend to be very seen. I still don't know WHY I'm being ordained, or what I'll do once I become a Minister, but I do know that I have a part to play.
Bring it on!