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I always enjoy and am inspired by doing the Serum discussions at Greenbelt. If I describe what we do it does not sound like much in terms of ‘putting on an event’ – we welcome everyone,  explain some simple ground rules, have someone give a very brief ‘thought for the day’ and ask a question which is then handed over to the small groups sitting around the tables to discuss and explore before feeding back at the end – yet I am always surprised by how such a simple formula can produce so profound an experience, “humbling and powerful” in the words of the journalist from the Guardian who attended last year.   On reflecting why this is the case I think it is a combination of tackling some of the biggest questions you can ask in an environment of respectful listening, where you are not out to win the argument but to share and learn from different perspectives and  experiences and in so doing start to find commonality as well as difference with others. This year we asked three different questions on the three occasions serum took place: how do our beliefs (whatever these happen to be) relate to and shape the way we actually behave?; do we only really search for god when we are desperate rather than comfortable?; is life all about winning and death all about losing?  In the process of discussing these questions you raise others which go deeper into the issue.

Re. life and death/winning and losing, my group asked how can we fully live in the reality of death which comes to us all, what does a ‘good life’ look like? what does a ‘good death’ look like? How can we process grief and loss?  Would the practice of wakes help us to come to terms with the reality of death by being in the presence of a dead body – how this can offer a strange comfort in that the person is no longer present, it is just the body that is left?

My experience of this discussion was that with the help of the others in my group we were able to look at something we don’t often look at together, a topic that is often avoided and can make us feel uncomfortable.  Serum provided us with some parameters in which to undertake this exploration, to take part in a considered and respectful reflection where the challenge of different perspectives and experiences can be heard in a non-defensive, non-confrontational manner.  At its best this is a process that I find converting in that it causes me to go back and question the way I see things.  It also provides a space in which I begin to find some common ground with others, that by sharing individual experience and thoughts it starts to become possible to share meanings and interpretations of that experience that translate across the divide.

For those interested in these kinds of discussions serum is happening every other Wednesday starting next week – see link for more details.

POSTED 04.09.10 BY: Vanessa | Comments (2)

At this year’s Greenbelt festival, the Moot Community contributed three contemplative eco-spirituality services, Ian Mobsby gave one talk and facilitated a discussion on the emerging church, whilst Sarah Edwards gave a talk and contributed to a panel discussion.  This year, we played host to Mike Angell, and Ordinand involved in a neo-monastic type initiative in San Diego, Karen Ward, the Episcopal Priest and Abbess of the Church of the Apostles, Jon Myers Ordinand with the Bekon collective in Seattle and Eliacin Rosario-Cruz, new monastic also from Seattle.  It was a great success, packed out services and talks all round.  So well done Greenbelt and Moot.  To integrate all our resources at Greenbelt, see the links below.

If you liked what you saw of the Moot Community at Greenbelt – then do make contact and come along to one of our events or gatherings.

1. Information on the music we used at Greenbelt compiled by Jonny Spoor our music master at Greenbelt.

2. Photographs of Mooters at Greenbelt – please add in photos if you have any others to share.

3. Information exchanges going on in our Facebook Moot Group.

4. Information for new people interested in attending moot events or participating in the community – register on this site and see our info for new people

5. Interested in participating in our WEDNESDAY MEDITATIONS, SERUM discussion group or ENNEAGRAM training see here for details

6. Interested in our service liturgies, contemplative and meditative resources – see our mootique.

7. Need more info? click on the contacts for Ian Mobsby for general information, or Jonny our communications person

POSTED 02.09.10 BY: ianmobsby | No Comments

As part of our new programme for the Autumn “term”, Moot has the privilege of embarking on a new venture next week, starting a new series of meetings working with “Serum“.

Serum is a group that already exists and meets in South-East london to discuss matters of spirituality. It is an informal group with no particular agenda, except a gathering of people from wildly different perspectives comparing notes and fostering interconnection in discussion about the various possibilities of what spirituality looks like today in people’s lives. The group usually meet in the pub, which is always the best place for such discussions.

About a year ago, Serum led a series of discussion at Greenbelt, the annual arts festival that meets at Cheltenham Racecourse every year (they also did the same this year, but I’ll come to that shortly). One of their discussions was attended by an atheist who gave Serum a very favourable write-up in The Guardian newspaper. It was clear that although apprehensive, she felt very comfortable being there, and discussing her thoughts openly. I’m really pleased that something of this nature is coming to be part of moot, and the discussions look very interesting indeed.

You can read the article on the Guardian website. Serum starts at moot on September the 8th 2010. The venue is the Cross Keys pub on Gracechurch St. in the centre of London.  For more information about the Moot Serum group click here.

POSTED 01.09.10 BY: artbizness | No Comments

Too often I have felt uncomfortable or unsure of what I was saying when professing the Creed. It makes me feel like my faith is being reduced to a series of bullet points that are irrelevant to whom I am and how I choose to live.Not that I want to be heretical or question the veracity of what is stated, but it does not mirror what I see as being my faith. Professing the Creed does not make me feel like I am a Christian. I don’t really relate. Rather, I feel labelled and it segregates me from others I profoundly love and who profoundly love me.

When I talk to others about my faith, about what I believe to be true, and about what kind of person I want to be, it is the Beatitudes that come to my mind. When I see others suffer, whether from poverty, because of abuse, or just because they do not get back what they have freely given to others, and yet see them carry on, moved by a higher spirit, a faith, a hope of what is to come; this is what I relate those narratives to:

³Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

⁴Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted

⁵Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth

⁶Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,

for they will be filled

⁷Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy

⁸Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God

⁹Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God

¹⁰Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

¹¹Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

[Matthew 5:3-12]

These word have moved me very profoundly over the past weeks and I can only invite you to also meditate on them. I would particularly encourage you to listen to how they also inspired contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (Arvo Pärt – The Beatitudes). Please, do not just listen to it once but allow his musical interpretation to accompany you daily and help you further grasp the Beatitudes.

POSTED 21.08.10 BY: Nicolas | Comments (1)

Thinking again of the detail within the virtues spiritual practices and postures document, I am struck by how I and others I know struggle with the false self.  This is the projection of who we want to be, rather than who we are, which we strive to make real which results in us being very hard on ourselves and others because it is centred on our ego – on our must prove ourselves to achieve in life.  This is because of a very deep lie – that we need to achieve for God to love us – conditional love – where to the contrary God is the unconditional love that helps us to change, where we are awakened to a change that is about being more of our real self, and getting away from our false self. Our struggles of countering the construction of a false-self are very difficult – because of our our cultures obsession with consumption, competition and conditional love is all about nurturing a false-self – existing at the surface of the now (the title of my talk at Greenbelt this year).

In his book New Seeds of Contemplation page 34-5,  Thomas Merton said this:

Everyone of us is shadowed by an illusory personal false-self. This is the man I want to be but cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him, and to be unknown by God, is altogether too much privacy.  My false and private self is the one who wants to exist outside of God’s will and God’s love, outside of reality and outside of life, and such a self cannot help but be an illusion.  We are not very good at recognising illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves. The ones we are born with and which speeds the roots of sin.  All sin starts from the assumption that my false self – the self that exists only in my own egocentric desires – is the fundamental reality of life to which everything else in the universe is ordered.  Thus I use up my life in the desire for pleasures and the thirst for experiences for power, honour, knowledge and love, to clothe this false-self  and construct its nothingness into something objectively real.  I wind experiences around myself and cover myself with pleasures and glory like bandages in order to make myself perceptible to myself and to the world  – as if I were an invisible body that only became visible when something visible covered its surface.  But there is o substance under the things of which I am clothed.  I am hollow, and my structures of pleasures and ambitions has no foundation.  I am objectified in them, but they are all destined by their very contingency to be destroyed – and when they are gone – there will be nothing left of me but my own nakedness and emptiness and hollowness to tell me I am my own mistake.  The secret of my identity is hidden in the love and mercy of God, for what ever is in God is really identical with God for God’s infinite simplicity admits no division and no distinction.  Therefore, I cannot hope to find myself anywhere expect in God. Ultimately the only way I can be myself is to become identified with God in whom is hidden the reason and the fulfillment of my existence.

I think Merton names here our very real struggle, and by implications, shows why it is crucial that Christianity needs to be about inner freedom of the self alongside outer freedom.  This is why we need spiritual practices, virtues and postures that help us maintain an inner freedom – because even our churches of late – neglect this need for inner discipleship.  To face the false self, we need to seek for God who speaks to us from within as much as we should be seeking for God’s presence in the world and outside of ourselves.  To finish I love this quote from John Finley:

Spiritual practices are a commitment to a daily rendezvous with God where there is no agenda but love to transform our hearts and awaken us.

POSTED 16.08.10 BY: ianmobsby | Comments (7)

I’m about to leave London for a few days so thought I’d leave you with some thoughts about someone who I came across while in France. A Bishop who seemed to be ahead of his times by not just putting a church on the internet but a whole diocese.

Mgr Jacques Gaillot started causing controversy with his actions and statements almost as soon as he was made Bishop of Évreux. He was outspoken about many social issues, campaigning for peace and justice both in France around the world, and also advocated progressive change in the Catholic Church.

Despite the support of thousands of people both in France and abroad he was removed as Bishop of Évreux in 1995 as he refused to resign.  He was then given the titular see of Partenia which is in the Algerian Desert, a convenient way of silencing him and removing his pastoral responsibilities. Mgr Gaillot responded by moving into a squat in Paris to live among the families of illegal immigrants. He also continued to minister online as Bishop of the online Diocese of Partenia. (Remember this was in 1996 probably before any trendy Christians were blogging or using macs etc!) Partenia has been an online space for dialogue about spirituality and activism ever since.

I’ll finish with a quote from his book “Voice from the Desert”

“I had a dream: to be able to accompany the poor, the excluded, the ignored, without having to explain myself or justify myself to the rich, the secure, or the comfortable. To be able to go where distress calls me without having to give advance notice. To be able to show my indignation at destitution, injustice, violence, the sale of weapons, and managed famines without being considered a meddler in politics.

I dreamed of being able to live my faith within the church, but also in society, in my time and with my times. I dreamed of the freedom to think and express myself, to debate and criticise, without fear of the guillotine. I dreamed of the being different within the unity of faith, and remaining myself, alone and yet in solidarity with others. Ultimately, I hoped to be able to proclaim a Gospel of freedom without being marginalised.”

Most of his writings are not available in English but I’m hoping this might change in the future.

POSTED 13.08.10 BY: jonnyspoor | Comments (3)

From the 20th September, we are starting up a new Skype driven Mini-Moot for all the Mooters who are currently spread around the world, and unable to participate in a local Moot.  We aim to make this monthly.  If you are a Mooter and unable to get to a mini-moot in London and interested in being involved in a once-a-month skype mini-moot, then do contact Ian.

I hope everyone in Moot has seen that we have a change in Mini-Moot’s from September.  For a start they go up to twice a month, and move to Tuesdays. Need more info, please contact Ian or info@moot.uk.net.

POSTED 08.08.10 BY: ianmobsby | Comments (1)

I have a lamp that is broken. I’ve changed the fuse and the bulb (bemused exasperation from my flatmate as I took apart the whole lamp looking for the plug fuse, – readers – the secret’s in the name). Nothing availed. My stubborn lamp remains unfixed.

But I also have an obsession with recycling and Never Wasting Anything. I may be on the OCD spectrum. I want to give you examples but they all sound genuinely concerning now that I’m wording sentences about them in my head.

(That possibly makes it sound worse than it is actually. But I want my five minutes of anonymity).

But my dilemma has reached a happy breakthrough because, as luck would have it, I’ve found these people who can tell me what to do with my lamp, and, socially engaged and environmentally switched-on people, I thought you’d find this enlightening. Plus, it’s a buoyant tale to lift the spirits of all who read it, as another personality tightrope of habitual hoarder vs. compulsive recycler is negotiated and your trusty tale-teller escapes a plummeting  existential crisis of enneagram proportions.

www.wasteconnect.co.uk, then ‘household’, and then the ‘recycling facilities search’ – it will find somewhere really pretty near you for anything you’ve got. I’m getting rid of my random old case-less, faceless cds next.

Also, while we’re on it, you can recycle old pairs of glasses with Vision Aid Overseas www.vao.org.uk, or computers at www.computeraid.org (they seem to have specific requirements but you can only give it a look eh)… or in fact anything else to a charity you particularly like if they’ve got shops, http://www.charityshops.org.uk is a kind of online village of charity shops, which incidentally is running a campaign which must be a market research mugshot of my neuroses: ‘donate, don’t waste’.

POSTED 05.08.10 BY: grace | Comments (2)

On Thursday 29th July 2010, over 150 people turned up to enjoy the music and creativity of Iain Archer, The Social Services and Lovers Electric. The night was a great success, organised by the new moot lounge operations team, so thanks to Aaron, David, Jonny, Meghan and Jemima.  Thanks to John for being an expert sound man, and to all the other mooters who helped out.  A little taster of what we want to happen with the Arts Cafe Lounge Project.

We have a Moot Flickr Photo pool group if you have pics you want to add – please do – see here.

POSTED 01.08.10 BY: ianmobsby | Comments (1)

In 2009, some will know that the Fresh Expressions initiative in the UK sponsored a Symposium day to explore New Monasticism. This gathered a number of participants from traditional and new monastic communities. The papers presented on that day are about so to be published by Canterbury Press in the second of a series called Ancient Faith Future Mission, which will explore Fresh Expressions and New Monasticism.

Additionally, after discussions with a number of different parties, we have agreed to fund a New Monastics Network Ning for a year, to help build up the network of new monastics in the UK, and promote a number of new events and gatherings planned for 2011. So we are now encouraging people who are involved or interested in new monastic models of missional communities, to join with this Ning group – so follow the link and participate in what seems to be a growing and interesting new movement of the Spirit. Click here to go to the site, and join with what seems to be bubbling up. Let’s see what will happen.  Mooters – you are more than welcome to get involved in the Ning site.

POSTED 30.07.10 BY: ianmobsby | No Comments