News from Yorkshire

The Yorkshire Group meets four times a year to pray, reflect and discuss our Way of Life and related areas of interest, with an element that looks outwards.  All welcome.

Our next meeting will be on Saturday 11 September 2010 at Daphne and Graham’s home:

7 Stubbings Close,
Mytholmroyd,
Hebden Bridge,
West Yorkshire,
HX7 5HP

View Larger Map

Please arrive from 10.30am for 11.00am, finishing at about 4.00pm.  Please remember to bring your packed lunch.  Please contact Dave Bissenden on 01757-705951 for more information and directions. 

Andrea, Barry and Sheila are going to lead the morning session on the positive influence of St Wilfred.

Morning Prayer is being led by Bren
Lunchtime Prayer is being led by Brenda
Evening Prayers are being led by Dave.

At the last meeting Brenda led us in an exploration of the life and work of St Bede.  A man born six years after the Synod of Whitby and committed to the religious life at a very young age, he became a deacon at 19 (blessed by John of Beverley) and a priest at 30.  He seldom left the monastery, being completely at home in those surroundings.  He was one of those people who gathered information and then sent it on its way to provide knowledge for others.  He understood Greek, Latin and possibly some Hebrew.  He became known as a hard working scholar and tutor for the young monks.  Like all monks he had to learn to read and did so through the scriptures.  He was responsible for commentaries on Genesis, Samuel and many others, and provided teaching materials explaining the background of Christ. 

Away from his scriptural work he wrote on natural history and in one paper explained the movement of stars calculated using arithmetic.

Though trained in and attached to the Roman Church, he was an admire of Hilda and Cuthbert because they complied with the decision at Whitby, and he considered Aidan to be a good man.

The book for which Bede is most remembered is the Church History of the English Speaking People which shows the quality of his scholarship with facts carefully checked out.  His main aim throughout his life was to promote Christianity.  He did this in a way nobody else at the time was able to do, and this stands as a tribute both to the man and to his work.

He goes down in history as a man well suited to his vocation and to the times he lived in.

The afternoon was spent visiting Selby Abbey, the Parish Church of Selby with a rich history going back to William Rufus.  One of its many claims to fame is the connection with the Washington family whose coat of arms contains both stars and stripes and is said to have been the inspiration for the current flag of the USA.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At our previous meeting we looked at the pagan past of Ireland, and though in the time available we could only take a very brief oversight we were able to delve into some of the myths and tales which highlighted the place played by the early settlers and the part their story played in the development of the land and its culture.

The afternoon was taken up by individuals discussing books which had been of significance in their lives.  Because of the wide range of books presented this was particularly interesting giving, as it did, an insight into the factors that has brought us, a group of individuals, to this place and point. 

Then, before our closing prayers we watched a video about the lives and activities of our pagan forebears.  Not the uneducated, untalented, violent people that are described by some of the ancient historians but an extremely talented group of tribes who showed great skills in artistic activities, a knowledge of astronomy so complex it took some of the finest brains in succeeding generations to emulate them and a coherent transport system which spread across Europe.  Added to this there was an attitude to the social welfare of the tribe and to those in it which far exceeded the rules and laws of many societies before and since.

At our meeting in November 2009 Brenda shared with us impressions of a trip she had recently made to Australia.  A country that was described to her as the ’World’s Largest Island’ with the smallest community, the youngest nation but the oldest people.  A country whose history began 20 thousand years ago when the land broke from the bottom of India and floated away into the sunset.  Despite this the view of most Europeans is that its history only began in the eighteenth century.  More or less after we began to send convicts there.  Before that there was a slow infiltration of inhabitants from Asia.  Though these appear to have formed into tribal groups there is evidence of contact between them with some links to suggest a common culture.  For example, Ayres Rock is commonly held to be a holy place. 

One aspect of this that had interested Brenda was the way in which the indigenous people had developed an affinity for the land and learned to work with it.  As a result they were able to survive and flourish.  This was highlighted in the Northern Territories when in the 1960s they were handed back by the government.  This was an area prone to regular, serious fires.  However, once it came under the control of the local people the fires ceased because they knew how to manage the land and as a result the conditions that made it combustible were controlled.  The local people were also able to refer to what they termed ’Dream time memories’, which allowed them to go back beyond the coming of the Europeans and through their understanding of the history of the land they were able to treat it with long term concern.

What became evident was that at one time our own area would have been inhabited by similar people.  However, their development was altered by the more crowded conditions which in turn led to such situations as fighting over available territory.

After lunch Brenda introduced us to the Fellowship of Contemplative Prayer, the ethos of which is focused on the word of God as spoken through scripture and as enfleshed in Jesus. 

A word is taken from scripture, (Dominica words), eg "I will come and heal," which is meditated on in three ways.

The first of these is described as the head.  That is taking the passage and considering what it means, what the words do for us.  The second stage is to meditate on how we as individuals respond to the word and finally we look at it in terms of how we can reflect the message to other individuals.

The object of this is so to embody the word that we improve our understanding of God and his message to us.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

At our meeting in September Dave introduced us to the Pagan Celts, bringing to life a culture that has often been seen in the pages of history as barbaric and ignorant, largely because those who wrote about it were those who tried to destroy it.  The reasons for this desire to eliminate ranged from ignorance and fear to the desire to pillage its wealth.  What the archaeology tells us is that we are talking of a diverse culture spreading across Europe a blanket of art, advanced social thinking and innovation.  While the Celtic people were not a nation as such, being more of a confederation of individual groups, they nevertheless lived to a certain cultural ethos which brought them together.  In exploring this culture we were able to see reasons why these pagans were able to understand and accept the stories that early Christian missionaries told them, particularly in places like Ireland where Roman influence had not reached.  The background of the Druidic system aided the movement and adoption of Christianity.  Where the Gods were given a human face and were known to be capable of dying for their people and the idea of the triple death was recognised.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Future meetings planned:

Saturday 11 September 2010 - Mytholmroyd
Saturday 20 November 2010 -  Birstall
Saturday 12 March 2011 - Bingley