Up a Tree – José Closs
Below is information about other organisations who have agreed to exchange website links with us. We will be continually adding organisations to this list.
Abbey of the Arts
Abbey of the Arts is a growing global community and virtual monastery. It is co-created by those who long to live into the monk and artist path more fully, knowing the depth and meaning to be found in them. Its aim is to help transformative living through contemplative & expressive arts.
Website – www.abbeyofthearts.com.
Ammerdown
The Ammerdown Centre is a well-established Christian Retreat and Conference Centre open to people of all faiths and none, with a special emphasis on dialogue, reconciliation and renewal. It offers a beautiful and peaceful meeting place conducive to refreshment of mind, body and spirit as well as mutual learning and shared encounters. It provides this facility within a welcoming, accepting and prayerful atmosphere which promotes mutual respect regardless of backgrounds and beliefs.
Website – www.ammerdown.org.
Christians Awakening to a New Awareness
Those who join CANA see their starting point as Christian but are open to the moving of the Spirit to seek and explore God and the spiritual dimensions of life, in a way that is open-ended and free from the boundaries that most religious frameworks and structures have imposed.
Website – www.christiansawakening.org.
Contemplative Fire
Contemplative Fire celebrates the sacrament of the present moment in the beauty of nature, in contemplative liturgy and teaching. It seeks to provide opportunities at many levels for personal and group work to enable us to enter deeply into the understanding and teaching of Jesus and the Christian mystics.
Website – www.contemplativefire.org.
Contemplative Outreach
Contemplative Outreach is a global network dedicated to the support of the contemplative life for those in ordinary circumstances. While we encourage every practice leading to contemplative prayer our principle purpose is to share the method and conceptual background of Centering Prayer as taught by the American Trappist Father Thomas Keating and his disciples. We offer regular workshops and retreats to teach the prayer method and related spiritual practices which belong to the living tradition of the contemplative Christian heritage. We help start, support and, where possible, facilitate groups interested in deepening their practice of Centering Prayer.
Click here to visit our page on Centering Prayer.
Website – www.contemplativeoutreach.org.uk includes information about 9 regions in the UK
Free to Believe
Free to Believe is an informal network of liberally minded Christians striving for an open, inclusive and thinking church. It began informally within the United Reformed Church but now includes many with similar aims from other denominations. FTB organises national and regional conferences intended to encourage a liberal agenda within the Church. It mails out a free ‘Briefing’ newsletter booklet three times a year. There is no membership, simply a mailing list and the opportunity to support running costs through occasional donations.
Website – www.freetobelieve.org.uk.
GreenSpirit
GreenSpirit is a network of people who celebrate the human spirit in the context of our place in the natural world and Earth’s own evolutionary journey. Their radical vision brings together the rigour of science, the creativity of artistic expression, the passion of social action and the wisdom of spiritual traditions of all ages. Attracting those of many faith traditions, they are a body of people who believe that human life has both an ecological and a spiritual dimension.
Website – www.greenspirit.org.uk.
Holy Rood House
Holy Rood House in Thirsk in Yorkshire, is also a base for Living Spirituality Connections, and Revd Elizabeth Baxter who runs it, is a member of the LS Steering Group.
Holy Rood is a centre, a home and a community. “Hospitality is at the heart of all we are and do. We are here for people at times of needs. People come to Holyrood from all over the UK and from other countries.” Holyrood is a charity with a gentle Christian ethos. Holyrood provides professional therapeutic help, programmes of events, and space for rest and relaxation.
Holy Rood is also home to the Centre for the Study of Theology and Health – www.holyroodhouse.org.uk/studycentre.html.
Website – www.holyroodhouse.org.uk.
Journeying
Journeying is an ecumenical organisation which takes small groups on holiday in an informal Christian ambience to the more off-the-beaten-track parts of Britian and Ireland. What we offer is almost certainly unique in Britain. Its origins lie in Celtic spirituality and most of our trips still reflect that approach.
Website – www.journeying.co.uk.
Launde Abbey
Launde Abbey is a Christian Retreat House and Conference Centre offered to the whole church and wider community, to people of all faiths and none, which every year welcomes thousands of visitors to a unique experience of warm hospitality and deep spirituality. Set in beautiful parkland in Leicestershire and Rutland, Launde offers individual and group retreats, quiet days, and meeting space for conference and gatherings.
Website: www.laundeabbey.org.uk.
Live Light, Dwell Deep
Livelightdwelldeep founder is Anna Robinson, a co-host on Nomad Podcast, who is deeply drawn to the mystics and misfits. LLDD creates inclusive and kind groups for those on the faith shifting journey for exploration, community and support. Her retreats help connect with Season, Soul and Source. Anna is rooted in the contemplative and Celtic Christian tradition and draws from other faiths, wisdom traditions, science and the arts. She loves to gather with others who find themselves in wilderness spaces and on the edges.
https://www.livelightdwelldeep.org/
New Monasticisms Ireland
New Monasticisms Ireland has its tentative roots in traditional Monasticism. It also has connections with a global expression that embraces many denominations. It could be said that it captures the ‘zeitgeist’ of this Age where much is in flux and the search for authentic is paramount.
Website – www.newmonasticismsireland.com.
Progressive Christianity Network Britain
PCN Britain supports people whose faith makes them feel isolated in their Christian communities and promotes a fresh vision of Christianity. It is a network of people sharing and promoting open Christian understanding both within and outside the church, and is open to liberating and radical ideas. Its approach is ecumenical – it has members from all mainstream denominations, and the majority of the members are lay people.
PCN Britain members are open minded individuals, seeking a credible and inclusive way to be Christian. Our progressive dialogue takes place in local groups, at conferences, in publications and on our website. We are not linked to any denomination but encourage all who follow the Jesus way to imagine a different future for Christian faithfulness.
Website – www.pcnbritain.org.uk.
The Retreat Association
The Retreat Association provides an information resource for those involved in retreat work and spiritual direction, including inquirers who are seeking to further their spiritual journey but are not part of the established church.
Website – www.retreats.org.uk.
Sarum College
An independent centre for study and research in Salisbury’s Cathedral Close. We offer Christian hospitality and accommodation. Our passion is learning that nourishes the human spirit.
Website – www.sarum.ac.uk
Seeds of Silence
Seeds of Silence works with Christians across the UK, encouraging them to explore how a spiritual discipline of silence can deepen their relationship with God, with others, and with themselves. It offers half day, full day or weekend workshops and retreats to develop understanding about this ancient Christian discipline. Retreats and workshops are tailored to the needs and context of each group, and use a wide variety of styles and types of input to help people begin to establish their own practice of silence.
Website – www.seedsofsilence.org.uk
Spirit of Peace
Working in the UK and Palestine/Israel, their four main areas of work include:
• working towards greater social cohesion in the UK
• intercultural dialogue and support of notable peace-builders in the Middle East.
• development and delivery of training to enable people to be effective ‘societal connective tissue’ and global citizens.
• working in partnership with an experienced trainer to deliver Kingian nonviolence training (based on the work of Dr Martin Luther King) in schools prisons and community groups.
Their work is informed and energised by spiritual and collaborative principals, seeking to expand the idea and action of ‘love’ beyond interpersonal relationships into community and global contexts.
Website – www.spiritofpeace.co.uk.
