Most of my weekend has been taken up with preparing Soul Space for Downham Market Festival. The festival lasts for a week, starting off with a parade and carnival on the Holiday Monday, traditionaly the Chruches together group has placed a tent onto the festival site for prayer, last year took this on and we produced the first Soul Space...
Soul Space is an interactive prayer experience- I designed a number of meditation stations with different thoughts and ways for people to respond, including lighting candles, using sand and stones as meditative aids, writing letters, finger painting etc...
We start with the inward journey, considering who we are, the themes were image, choices, burdens and joys, and living in the light... then the outward journey, considering the world we live in and our responsibilities to the world and to one another....
During the afternoon we had around 300 visitors who took part in the experience, writing and painting prayers, lighting candles etc...
We have created a blog and web-site to mirror the experience in a small way; it is another point of contact...
Many people spoke about how meaningful they had found it, some asked for prayer, there are so many people in our town who are open to spiritual things, to being spiritual people, and yet church represents institution to them, it seems cold and unwelcoming. These perceptions are not well founded and are largely media driven, so it is good that we can go out into the town in such a positive way enabling folk to express their spirituality, and building good contact points and relationships.
I sometimes wonder if it is all worth it, but today I know that it is...
