Touchstone: listening for a change

One memberr of the West Yorskhire

Methodist Women in Britain District Day

weaves silver threads into her creation

to remind her of God's presence

right through her life ...

     The yurt and I travelled down to Sarum College

     in Salisbury to be part of an away weekend

     entitled Vulnerability and Trasformation.

     Like the participants, the yurt itself was

     a bit wobbly to start with but soon was

     a place for quiet reflection and a fitting setting

     for the clay jars and creative poetry

     that emerged over the weekend.

Laura also moved on this month.  She has been the Beacon coordinator, working with Refugees and Asylum seekers,

coordinating the McKenzie friends and generally bringing joy and laughter to the Touchstone house.

We will miss you Laura and hope all goes well with your further research  in the Peace Studies Departement at the University.

(She does however have a lot to learn about Daleks!)

          Whilst on placement from Queens in Birmingham, Naomi learned many things from folding napkins to ...

                                ... tying up yurts!

          She's also learned quite a bit of theology ... and been a real blessing to us at Touchstone .... come back soon Naomi!

                                 There are some days when you simply want to say, ' Thank you God!' 'Hooray indeed, most wonderful God!'

                                                      Yes we made a lot of cakes for God and Touchstone -  hooray!

Preparing for the 'Hooray Day' and what does God send?

A rainbow, arcing right over Mc Rory's Bar!

This is the view form my kitchen ....

a real sign of hope over the urban landscape

There is very little to be said about Good Friday. I had been in the Cathedral every evening giving a reflection on Holy Week. By Friday I had run out of words and simply went to sit in the Urban Garden and read my book. It was freezing cold and under the seat where I was sitting was a pile of cigarette filters. Sadness is the only thing to feel on such a day.

Four hours of driving after a long week's work, might have seemed a bridge or six too far .... but we had a good time with the Methodist Women of Britain East Anglia Division! We worked as a team of three and introduced some aspects of our interfaith work, encouraged them to have some 'Tiny Achievable Tick-able Targets' and endeavoured to inspire and challenge. We met some phenomenol women and did quite a lot of weaving too!

But it was good to sit down

before the four hours home!