A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to attend a Spiritual Ecology Workshop Carousel organised by St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace. This was a participatory and deeply moving day where we had the opportunity to work in small groups exploring unique facets of four distinct workshops. Looping through a ‘carousel’ we began the day by Re-membering Indigeneity.
How would our relationship with the land change if we were to honour our ancestral roots? To begin to remember our sense of connection and belonging, we brought along a piece of nature from our local landscape so that we could build an altar and infuse it with our loving presence while also listening deeply for the whispers of every living thing. As a result, reciprocity happens! We come to understand our interdependence and use knowledge that emerges as a guiding principle for our actions. Through the portals of storytelling, song and ceremony, this workshop was gently setting the scene for us to re-engage with our deep humanity and the wider web of life.
Our next stop was Spiritual Ecology in practice located at St Ethelburga’s courtyard garden “inviting us to reclaim a felt sense of the sacred within our every-day”. So many participants have mentioned to me that St Ethelburga’s Centre feels like a gem in the midst of frantic Liverpool Street in London. Indeed, this part of the workshop felt like moving away from survival mode to practicing living in preciousness and serenity. We so often are too busy straining for energy that is not free, that we miss the beauty of the blue sky or the sweet aromas of our hot morning drinks. Yet it’s the beauty that is happening through our senses that is the energy that is given freely and how the fullness of life is sustained. Using our senses, we shared stories with each other and connected with both the ‘free’ theatre of plants as well as inspirational quotes scattered around the garden:
“I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there, I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being” – Black Elk
The theme of ‘oneness with all creation’ continued as we entered the next workshop: Co-creating Hope: Including more-than-human intelligence in human decision making. The natural world is bestowed with such awe-inspiring sensibilities of their own and we spent first part of this workshop learning incredible science facts on “how plants learn and remember, how whales exhibit culture, and how even bacteria can problem solve”. Although we are nearing the U.S. presidential election in November, we were also reminded that many animals make democratic decisions too. Using a mix of imagination and embodied exercise we played around with ideas on how to include such mind-blowing intelligence of the more-than-human world in the face of multiple interlocking crises.
Given that St. Ethelburga’s work sits at the intersection of climate and peace, the final stop of this workshop was Faith and Moral Courage: seeking faith in what unites us, and courage to depolarise. The concept of human nature that is being perpetuated through the media is that there is far more dividing us than the things we have in common. Spending time in such a diverse environment exploring how we can step into the shoes of the ‘other’ once again proved that the reality is quite the opposite. More importantly, we asked ourselves how can we come together and reinvigorate for the sake of the earth? Perhaps leaning into the wisdom of another quote can give us our first clue: “But ask the animals and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky and they will tell you. Or speak to the earth and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you”. Letting nature lead feels like such a fundamental ground from which any ‘field of change’ can emerge.
St. Ethelburga’s is a ‘maker of peacemakers.’ They believe there can be no peace on Earth unless we also realise peace with Earth. They offer events, training, leadership programmes and multimedia content which equip and inspire people to become peacemakers in their own contexts. Their project areas include community reconciliation, refugee inclusion, radical resilience, viewpoint diversity, and spiritual ecology.
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