Too often people’s understanding of and engagement with ‘church’ is reduced to occasional Sunday services, weddings, funerals and Christmas, when it is so much more.

This talk with Q&A is an introduction to the emerging richness of the spiritual life of St Laurence: Stroud Centre for Peace and the Arts. It will spotlight a timeless alignment of sacred spaces – discovered in abbeys & priories in these British Isles for over a thousand years – that has instinctively shaped the pattern of our community’s spiritual life.

The seven spaces might exist as a location and / or as a practice. They are:

Presence

• Chapel: spaces where the community gathers for devotion & contemplation
• Cell: individual spaces for our interior life to be nurtured by God
• Garden: spaces for our community’s working /volunteering life

Learning and Decisions

• Scriptorium: spaces for engaging with living theology and learning together
• Chapter: spaces where decisions are made

Community

• Refectory: spaces where we share food and hospitality
• Cloister: spaces where we meet & engage with each other, and with fellow travellers.

For people of all faiths or none, whether church goers or not, this time is for all who may be interested in exploring a fresh approach to spiritual and community life that has its roots in the ancient sanctuaries for monastic lives.

With Revd Simon Howell and Peter Chester