ST BEDE’S PASTORAL CENTRE
Dear All
ST BEDE’S AT A GLANCE IN SUMMER 2014
Sugg est ed
Very happy Easter to you all and I hope it is a
time of rest and a continuation of this lovely
weather we have had recently.
As you may know we have a small and very
informal spiritual library downstairs at St Bede’s.
This is entirely made from your very generous
gifts of books and recently we have had many
more donations. Please do go and investigate
this on your next visit and feel free to borrow as
many books as you like. Diane or Carol will explain the very simple system - but if you are
coming specially to use the library it is always
worth ringing to check the room is free as
groups often use it.
One of the joys here is that those who initially come to attend sessions here at St Bede’s
often end up offering days or courses for others, and this is certainly the case during the
coming term. Others often recommend speakers they have heard elsewhere, which is
always very helpful, as word of mouth is the best advertisement. If you know of anyone
or could offer something yourself please let us know.
Meanwhile, much to our delight, Martin Laird is coming to speak on Friday 20th June.
As you know he wrote the excellent book: ‘Into the Silent Land’ and I am sure the day
will be a valuable one.
This is very advanced warning but fairly early in the Autumn term Dr Paula Gooder will
be coming. As many of you know she is very well known as an excellent writer and
lecturer in Biblical Studies and we are very lucky to have been able to invite her here on
October 11th 2014.
We are also hoping to offer our two year training in Spiritual Accompaniment during
the end of 2014 through to 2016. If you are interested or know of anyone who might
be, please go to our website [www.stbedes.org.uk] and look for the details under
‘Events and Courses’ YISAC: York Ignatian Spiritual Accompaniment Course. If you prefer we have details to pick up from the office at St Bede’s.
With best wishes from all here at St Bede’s, Cecilia CJ
St Bede’s Pastoral Centre, 21 Blossom Street, York YO24 1AQ.
Tel: 01904 464900, Email: [email protected]
Website: www.stbedes.org.uk
Event and Speaker
Big story, little story and
Blowing in the wind
with Revd Sally Nelson
Date
Time
Do n a t i o n
£7
Thursday
1 & 22 May
1-3
Being a Jew for a Year with
Rachel Montagu and Sr Patricia
Tuesday 6 May
10.304.00
£12
Looking behind the
popular images of Francis and
Clare with Rowan Williams
Monday 12 May
2-4
£7
Spiritual growth and the
worshipping community with
Revd Diane Westmoreland
Tuesday 20 May
10.303.30
£12
Walking with God…… with
Thursday 5 June
10.303.30
£12
Duccio’s Maestà - Altarpiece
originally in the Duomo, Siena
with Sr Colette
Wednesday
11 June
10-12
£7
The Carpenter’s Apprentice
with David and Dorothy
Littlewood
Wednesday
18 June
per
session
10.30-4 £ 1 2
Silent before this Great God
with Fr. Martin Laird, O.S.A.
Friday 20 June
10.003.30
£12
Gandhi, the Beatitudes and
Living in the Real World with
Barbara Butler
Wednesday
25 June
10.3012.30
£7
All sessions start at the time stated but you are welcome to come earlier for coffee. Refreshments are included in
the price. Lunch can be bought in the Bar Convent cafe; alternatively, bring your own to eat at St Bede’s.
Length of lunchtimes vary. No one should feel excluded for financial reasons please contact the
YISAC BEGINS AGAIN!
REGULAR GROUPS AND PRAYER MEETINGS
[York Ignatian Spiritual Accompaniment Course]
January 2015- November 2016.
YORK JUSTICE AND PEACE GROUP: a group interested in a
wide variety of justice issues. Usually 7.30pm on the second
A two year ecumenical course offering training for Spiritual
Accompaniment, based on the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. For further
details, the course brochure and application form, please go to the
St Bede’s website or collect from the Office.
Duccio’s Maestà - Altarpiece originally in the Duomo, Siena.
Sr Colette FLYNN CJ
Wednesday 11 June
Duccio shows us his contemplation on
Our Lady’s life. She is the centre, but
as always points us to her Son. We can
use the pictures to aid our prayer.
CHRISTIAN MEDITATION: an ancient form of contemplative prayer,
seeking God in stillness and silence.
Wednesdays 7.30–9pm
Contact St Bede’s for more details.
CITY PRAYER: a group of enthusiastic people who meet to
pray and sing together.
Mondays,7.30pm Contact David Copeland 01904 330 608
THE YORK SANGHA takes its spiritual inspiration from the
Sister Colette CJ taught History of Art.
‘Being a Jew for a Year’ .
Sr Patricia and Rabbi Rachel Montagu
Tuesday 6 May
Being a Jew is for life, not just for a year – but the year has its rhythm of
feasts and fasts, occasions for recalling and re-living the great events that
make the Jewish people who they are. Rabbi Rachel will talk about these
events, and how they are celebrated each year in Jewish homes and synagogues. There will also be time to reflect on the relationship between the
Jewish and the Christian liturgical year, the parallels and the differences.
Rabbi Rachel Montagu teaches Biblical Hebrew and Jewish Studies, after
Monday each month.
Contact Nan Saeki 01904 783621
studies in Cam-
bridge, London, Jerusalem and London again. She has worked in interfaith dialogue and as congregational Rabbi in two synagogues, and lives in London with her husband, two sons and 15,000 books.
Sister Patricia Harriss CJ is now a member of the Bar Convent community, having studied
in London and worked in CJ schools in England, in adult religious education in the Dioceses of Leeds and
East Anglia, in Rome, Slovakia and Russia for the Congregation, and most recently in interfaith activities
in London.
Buddhist teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, following his emphasis on
mindfulness. We meet every Monday from 7pm to 9 pm, please
contact Lauri 07826198656, e-mail [email protected].
St Bede’s Chapel Services during Term Time.
Wednesdays 12 noon Mass.
Bar Convent Chapel Mass at 12 noon every Friday throughout the
year. PLEASE RING TO CONFIRM IF NOT A REGULAR ATTENDER.
IGNATIAN SPIRITUALITY AT St BEDE’S. Please see our website for more details.
We offer various days, workshops and training courses specifically based on Ignatian
spirituality for those who are interested in learning more, and also for those who are working
as spiritual directors.
PERSONAL AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT [PSD] a two year experiential course open to
all. This course is now running but we hope we may be able to begin another in September
2016. For more details please phone or email St Bede’s Office
TRAINING TO OFFER SPIRITUAL ACCOMPANIMENT
We will be offering a two year course for this starting in January 2015. All participants will
need to have made the full Spiritual exercises of St Ignatius in some form [19th Annotation or
residential 30 days] and have some previous training in prayer such as the PSD course.
For more information email Cecilia [[email protected]]
INDIVIDUAL EVENTS

What helps people to develop towards a mature faith?
Thursdays 1 & 22 May

What can be done locally to help that happen?
With Revd Dr Sally Nelson

Can the local minister/priest/lay leader be a spiritual director to
1 May: Big story, little story: making sense of
life, the universe, and everything with Mark's gospel.
22 May: Blowing in the wind: the Spirit and the church's
a congregation?
Are we caring healers; or should we be wise companions?
There will be a mixture of input from Diane and small group work.
Please come prepared to share your thoughts and ideas.
mission. Looking for the breath of God in Acts and other places!
Diane is currently working on a book which will make her findings more easily
Sally is minister of Wetherby Baptist Church, secretary of the Yorkshire
available to lay people and clergy who are interested in how spiritual growth can
Baptist Ministers' Fellowship among other roles. She has a research
be nurtured in the local congregation.
interest in the use of narrative to explore the big questions of life.
Diane’s thesis can be accessed at: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3276/
Looking behind the popular images of
Francis and Clare
With Rowan Williams
Monday 12 May
Examining the truth behind the legends of
Francis and Clare of Assisi using images from
hagiography, history, literature and film.
Rowan Williams is an Anglican priest and chaplain to the University of York.
For seven years she was a member of an Anglican Franciscan religious
order, and she has worked as a parish priest and hospital chaplain. She has
written one book on Franciscan spirituality (A Condition of Complete
Simplicity, Canterbury Press 2003) and is currently in the final stages of a
doctorate on the theology of St Clare at Cambridge University.
Spiritual growth and the worshipping community
with Revd Diane Westmoreland
Tuesday 20 May
The workshop will look at questions like:

Do we mature spiritually, and if so, how does it happen?
Diane has 20 years experience of parish ministry.
She was ordained in 1998 and worked briefly as an NSM before moving into a
stipendiary post.
A Yorkshirewoman by birth, she has worked in parish
churches in the Dioceses of York and Newcastle, and is an experienced quiet
day leader.
She is interested in spiritual formation and completed a
professional doctorate at Durham in 2011.
Walking with God through the Seasons, patterns &
colours of Nature
(and seeing the parallels in the cycles & changes of our own lives)
With Jill Solich
Thursday 5 June
An illustrated talk, using slides, prayers, poetry & insights. Time for
personal prayer and reflection using an optional simple art activity if
wished- no artistic skills required!
In the afternoon, we'll be looking at the fascinating small sculptures
surrounding York Minster's West Doorway, telling the story of the Old
Testament.
Jill has been coming to St. Bede's for 18 years as a participant
and was delighted to be able to give something back when
asked to help lead 'The Exploring Prayer' course last Autumn.
Her interests include art, nature, travel, & family life.
The Carpenter’s Apprentice
Silent Before This Great God
With David and Dorothy
Littlewood
With Fr. Martin Laird, O.S.A
Friday 20 June
Wednesday 18 June
‘What we Need is to Be Silent
before this Great God.'
You are invited to take time out to make a
reflective personal journey , exploring what can be
These words from St. John of the Cross will
learnt and understood about ourselves and our own
lives, through contemplating the almost silent years of the life of
Jesus; a day exploring the ‘extraordinary’ among the ordinary and
everyday activity of a carpenter’s apprentice. Jesus spent most of
his life learning to be a craftsman.
A ‘Master’ Carpenter. During
these ‘quiet’ years scripture tells us very little except that Jesus
learned, grew and matured into the man. During the day participants
can expect times of teaching and guided reflection, together with
opportunities
for
quiet
individual
contemplation,
and
also
frame this retreat day. With times for
sitting together in silence, talks by Father Laird, and conversation, we
will deepen our capacity to release ever more deeply into that Mystery
that already shines out of our own eyes, as well as gaining a more deeply
engaged perspective on the noble defeats and fruitful failures that open
the doors of humility onto the expanse of Wisdom.
Fr. Martin Laird, O.S.A., is the author of Into the Silent Land and A
Sunlit Absence . He has led retreats throughout the USA and Europe.
conversation.
David has been the Senior Leader and Pastor of Hull
Community Church for over 20 years, and has increasingly pursued a passion for contemplative prayer, combined with a quest to understand more of the humanity of Jesus and how this can impact upon our faith
and lives today. As a Church Leader he is committed
to a community vision of transformation through social
action, loving and inclusive relationships, spiritual development and ecumenical partnerships.
Dorothy worked as a health professional and clinical teacher for many
years, but since 2013 has given her time to the development of Christian
spirituality, working within her local church community, and as part of a
local ecumenical spirituality development team. David and Dorothy are
trained Spiritual Directors working with individuals across the region from
various backgrounds. They have a continually growing family with 2 children
and 7 grandchildren and enjoy playing golf with them on a regular basis.
Gandhi, the Beatitudes and Living in the Real World
With Barbara Butler
Wednesday 25 June
Barbara will do a power point
presentation and talk on 'Gandhi, the
Beatitudes and Living in the Real World,
followed by discussion and sharing of
resources.
You are very welcome to bring a packed
lunch and stay to enjoy the garden.
Barbara is the executive secretary of Christians Aware, an educational,
ecumenical and international charity - there is a web site. Christians
Aware arranges regular visits to India and there is an active India
Group.