Organised by BRF with the Diocese of Oxford.
A day to explore different aspects of spirituality and prayer
When: Saturday 18 July 2015, 10:00 am to 4:30 pm
Where: Ripon College, Cuddesdon, nr Wheatley, Oxford OX44 9EX
Cost: £25 per person (discount available – book five places but only pay for four).
Introduction
The Festival of Prayer, now in its fifth year, includes ‘taster’ sessions of spiritual traditions and those that ‘go deeper’. It offers a breadth of content with a gentleness of pace and warm hospitality. The intention is to make different forms and styles of prayer accessible to beginners and the more experienced alike.
The Festival will start at 10.00 am in Cuddesdon Parish Church with a welcome by Colin Fletcher, the Bishop of Dorchester and the keynote address by Mark Williams. We are privileged to have Canon Professor Mark Williams as our key-note speaker, who will suggest we may cultivate stillness in a frantic world by using Mindfulness.
He will also lead three workshops through the day exploring and practicing Mindfulness. Besides Mark’s workshops, the sessions offer a large and varied programme of input and engagement. The day ends with a reflection and final prayer in the church by 4.30 pm.
Among the riches on offer are workshops on Pathways into Silence, Ignatian Spirituality, the Jesus Prayer and Celtic traditions and the spiritual insights of Thomas Merton and Hildegard of Bingen. We can learn to use our cameras as tools to aid contemplation; there are workshops on Prayer in Later Life and using Poetry to prepare for Prayer; with the help of the Forest Church, we can explore the natural world in the open air – whatever the weather. The programme is designed to give opportunities to enrich and feed the inner person. Each workshop will last one hour, and most will include a time of prayer in the appropriate style.
To plan your day choose one workshop in each of the three workshop sessions. If you are interested in attending Contemplation and Photography, you will need to book both workshops (Nos 7 & 24). All other workshops stand alone, although a speaker’s second may assume some prior knowledge of the subject.
Most of the venues are in the college, within walking distance of each other, and those with steps or stairs are marked accordingly. Cuddesdon Parish Church and the Village Hall are 3 or 4 minutes walking distance from the college.
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