Exploring Your Spirituality

Overview

Offered by the Anglican churches in Kidlington with Hampton Poyle for anyone (particularly people who are not already church members) wanting to discuss questions around their own spirituality and how this can be developed in today's world.

Contact

Detail

If you, or someone you know, would be interested to start this exploration of spirituality please consider coming to a course running at the Adult Education Centre for 6 weeks this spring. The course has been organised by members of the Anglican church here in Kidlington, but it is open to anyone, with or without any recognised religious affiliation. There is no hidden agenda and no claim that the leaders have the answers - just a belief that the church should provide opportunities for people to share their experiences and to develop their potential to live life to the full. If participants do ask questions about religion, the leaders will do their best to answer; but they will share their own experiences, their certainties and also their uncertainties.

The course will start by looking for some clarity as to what we mean by spirituality, perhaps summarised as the deep core outlooks of each individual as he or she seeks for meaning in the world. Participants will then look at spiritual experiences which have been described in the past and, if they so choose, of their own. (No-one will be expected to say more than they wish to or feel safe with.) We will then look at the spiritual journey in relation to the world in which we live and all we have to deal with every day. Next we will explore the fascinating and growing overlap between the discoveries of scientists and the experience of spiritual explorers. Then we look at some of the baggage which gets in our way as we try to make sense of the spiritual journey - for example our own inherited difficulties with religion, with relationships, with the failure of spiritual teaching in the past. Finally we will look for ways of continuing the journey, searching for whatever means will assist each of us in the future. There will be three course leaders, with varied backgrounds:

• Eley McAinsh who is Director of the Living Spirituality Network and the main producer of BBC Radio 4's spiritual anthology, Something Understood
• Sister Ann Verena, a member of the Community of Companions of Jesus the Good Shepherd at Begbroke Priory with a background as a scientist; and
• Giles Charrington, a counsellor and sometime hermit who practices Zen meditation.

When and Where