Welcome
Join mailing list: To join our mailing list to keep updated with news about the Greater Manchester GreenSpirit group, send an email to nicola.percival@soulsustainability.co.uk
About us: We are Manchster based GreenSpirit members who meet regulary in the greater Manchester area. We are currently putting together a calender of events. If you have any ideas for 2012 events please email nicola.percival@soulsustainability.co.uk
Future events:
Monday 28th May: Walking the Universe Story in Manchester, starting 6pm. The Cosmic Walk is a ritual created by Sr. Miriam MacGillis of Genesis Farm. It has
subsequently been modified and facilitated by many people around the world.
The age of the universe is reckoned to be about 14 billion years. If we can get
a real understanding of the vastness of time and space, we may be able to gain
a new perspective on the meaning of our lives. We cannot conceive the enormity
of time and space using pure numbers. What does 14,000,000,000 mean to you? By
measuring out some of the important events in the development of the universe
on a route where distance is an analogue of time we can get a better
understanding of our place in this awesome creation. This is a Cosmic Walk.
The actual distance walked will not be particularly long and we will walk
fairly slowly in a kind of ritual. As we walk you are invited to contribute
poems, readings or anything else relating to the story of the universe. It may
help if you let Barry know in advance so he can incorporate your contribution
into the route which he is planning.
The walk will take place in Birchfields Park in Rusholme, Manchester on 28th
May. We will meet at 6pm at the Forest Garden, which is in the North West
corner of the park beside Dickenson Road. More detailed instructions will be
available nearer the time. Further details from Barry hraca@tiscali.co.uk 0161 225 2913. You are invited to bring food and drinks to share.
Information about GreenSpirit: GreenSpirit is a national charity – a network of people who celebrate the human spirit in the context of our place in the natural world and Earth’s own evolutionary journey. Our radical vision brings together the rigour of science, the creativity of artistic expression, the passion of social action and the wisdom of spiritual traditions of all ages. Attracting those of many faith traditions, we are a body of people who believe that human life has both an ecological and a spiritual dimension. You do not need to be a member of GreenSpirit to come to our events, however we would encourage you to visit www.greenspirit.org.uk and consider joining up. For a small annual subscription you will recieve the GreenSpirit journal three times a year, have access to our social networking site and recieve information about our national events.
GreenSpirit books: This is a great way to find out more about Creation Spirituality. GreenSpirit Books supplies books, tapes and videos on Creation Spirituality themes by post. Standard and concessionary members will receive a booklist by post and you can also browse the books on the website at www.greenspirit.org.uk/books
Past events: To find out a little bit more about our group activities, take a look at our past events below:
Samhain celebration on 31st October 2011. We held an informal gathering to celebrate Samhain and decide, at the start of the Celtic new year, what activities we would like to run over the next 12 months. This is the beginning of a new dark-light cycle – whispering of new beginnings and the stirring of the seed from below the ground – a very fitting time for us to be starting something new and exciting. Along with sharing food together we held a small ceremony to remember our ancestors – for without which we would not be here today.
Our beautiful Samhain Mandala
Downshifting explained. Monday 28th November. After sharing another delicious bring-and-share supper, we discussed the concept of “Downshifting” which is explained in Marian Van Eyk McCain’s book. One of GreenSpirits longstanding members, and iconic Downshifter shared his inspiring story of how he has downshifted. It was truly inspirational, and he summarised it perfectly… “downshifting has nothing to do with climate change…. its about personal liberation”. We have agreed to support each other through this process, checking in with our progress at each meeting. One of the things we are all going to try and focus on is shopping at supermarkets less – something which will have an unfathomable impact on climate change resilience, improving the local economy and reductions in carbon emissions.
Click here to read a review and purchase a copy of Downshifting from GreenSpirit books.
An introduction to Thomas Berrys work – Monday 23rd January: We had a wonderful evening with our guest speaker with Sr June Raymond discussing some of Thomas Berrys work. June is a longstanding member of the GreenSpirit Council, and produced the book “Meditations with Thomas Berry”. June so eloquently explained that she sees spirituality as absolutely a key part of working with the environment. Once we are we are connected to earth by love we will not be able to go on harming the earth. We have all the answers now to live sustainable lives, but we are not changing. We need to
see ourselves as connected and part of the Earth. “The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To become alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence”. Thomas Berry
Special thanks go to June for giving us such an enlightened evening.
GreenSpirit “Books in a Suitcase” comes to Manchester – Sunday 5th February 2012. We pioneer this brand new scheme at Gorton Monastery, promoting the Book Review Club and selling some wonderful titles including Thomas Berry’s A Great Work, and GreenSpirit a Path to a New Consciousness. Look out for our suitcase at future events!
Monday 20th February 2012, 6.30pm – 9pm in Manchester. Exploring the meaning of Earth as Community: Two of our members Helena Kettleborough and Pam Winter ran a wonderful session exploring what Earth Community means to us all. There were so many similarities in our individual interpretations, from the interconnectedness of all life, to how us humans generally perceive our place in the Earth, as separate from her. We left feeling enlightened, on a cold, very wet winters night, and the bring-and-share suppers just keep on getting better and better too!
On Tuesday 13th March 2012 we held a special event at the Quaker Friends Meeting House . This event was during national Climate Week, and was a Spoke Event to the Manchester Low Carbon Conference . During the evening we paid our respects to Gaia’s Graveyards whilst also considering the opportunities that lie ahead and all the wonderful work that is already being done to help transform our world. We then explored what makes people change their behaviour in order to feed back at the Low Carbon Conference. Thank you Helena for facilitating such a good session.
Celebrating the Spring Equinox at Arbor Low Stone Circle,
Derbyshire, 21st March 2012. The Spring Equinox is an extremely powerful time to initiate new projects and to set intentions for the year ahead. We spent the afternoon walking in the beautiful Peak District, before having a small ceremony as the sun set at this ancient spiritual site with stunning views across Derbyshire.
Matthew Fox, international teacher, radical theologian, and spiritual activist. Friday 6th April-Saturday 7th April at St Agnes Church, North Reddish, Manchester. Matthew Fox is a radical theologian, spiritual activist, and founder of Creation Spirituality. As an activist Fox’s interests have been the renewal of education and of religion. In the modern age we have developed knowledge, but at the expense of
wisdom. The result has been ecological disaster and destitution, with a loss of
meaning and shared values in our lives. We need our spirituality to bring
wisdom back to us and to refresh our yearning hearts. During this event Matthew Fox explored how we can awaken to our divine origins so as to become transformative agents
of healing and wholeness in the 21st Century.
GreenSpirit Spring Walking Break at Gradbach, nr Buxton in Derbyshire. This years GreenSpirit Spring walking break “ Clouds and Chasms” ran from Wednesday 11th – Saturday 14th April at Gradbach, Derbyshire. We spent some devotional moments on our walks in this beautiful landscape, with its rolling hills, bubbling brooks and ancient woodland, reconnecting and celebrating with nature.