By Morgana West
Currently in the process of exploring the setting up of a Glastonbury Cooperation Circle, affiliated with the United Religions Initiative, I was delighted to once again visit Ammerdown Centre, a Christian retreat and conference centre near Bath; my purpose to meet with individuals who are very active in bridge-building work. The visit has personally inspired me to further our work that celebrates the Unity that can be found within Diversity, right here in Glastonbury. The last time I was at Ammerdown was in February to participate in Celebrating Planet Earth where Leaders, Founders, Writers, Movers & Shakers within the Christian and Pagan communities had been invited by Ammerdown to join together and converse with the intention of building bridges between differences, in celebration of their common love of the Earth. I was delighted to once again be heading to a venue whose work has gained an international reputation.
Currently in the process of exploring the setting up of a Glastonbury Cooperation Circle, affiliated with the United Religions Initiative, I was delighted to once again visit Ammerdown Centre, a Christian retreat and conference centre near Bath; my purpose to meet with individuals who are very active in bridge-building work. The visit has personally inspired me to further our work that celebrates the Unity that can be found within Diversity, right here in Glastonbury. The last time I was at Ammerdown was in February to participate in Celebrating Planet Earth where Leaders, Founders, Writers, Movers & Shakers within the Christian and Pagan communities had been invited by Ammerdown to join together and converse with the intention of building bridges between differences, in celebration of their common love of the Earth. I was delighted to once again be heading to a venue whose work has gained an international reputation.
Since 2007, our own Centre has been supporting and welcoming people of diverse beliefs to Glastonbury and it is now recognised that there are more than seventy spiritual paths upheld in this small, but interesting, market town in the south-west of England. It has long been a personal dream of mine to be able to create a neutral but sacred indoor environment, not affiliated to any one belief; a space in which people could share their own spiritual understandings and religious beliefs in an atmosphere that gives honour and respect to the diversity in the world around us. This concept became a reality in 2014 with the development of the Sanctuary. The support and encouragement we have received since the opening of this space within our Centre has been more than we dared have hoped for.
The Unity Bowl at our Unity event in 2012 Our work also involves taking things one step further by pro-actively encouraging and supporting people of good heart and intention on their own path through life. Most of us know only too well that there is widespread agreement in that bridge building can be successful in helping to reduce prejudice and hostility between different groups, propelling people into living peacefully alongside each other. In a community such as Glastonbury, where diversity is both flourishing and glaringly apparent, many of our visitors often remark on the kindness and love that is, at times, quite palpable. As expected though, where harmony and love is shining a very bright light, discord and hate can be found in equal measure. After all, as human-beings, full of complex contradictions going about our human-doings, we often find ourselves facing the challenge of a need to become consciously aware of where we are placing our focus and of how our actions might be contributing to the ‘whole’. The legend of the Holy Grail has a high profile here, believed by many to have been hidden in Glastonbury, it's predecessor in the stories, the Cauldron of Ceridwen. Many come in search of its 'truths' and it is a well-known 'secret' that the 'hiding place' is within each and everyone of us, we are the Grail, we ourselves are the Cauldron. It is our own thoughts, and deeds that allow the Light to shine forth out of our own vessels and it is of our own actions we are reminded to frequently ask the question;
"Whom does the Grail serve?".
"Whom does the Grail serve?".
Unity Candle & Town Council Recognised as being open to all paths, Glastonbury Reception Centre has been described as a 'living bridge' that connects across secular and spiritual communities and spreading a harmonious message is, we feel, an important part of our role. Support, understanding and acceptance of those of good intent, regardless of faith or spiritual beliefs (or those with none) underpins all our work. Building bridges between diverse beliefs is at our core; our aim to show how we can acknowledge and respect each other, even if we don’t necessarily agree.
Our Centre has an ethos of Unity through Diversity but this is not to suggest we feel all faiths and paths are the same, or that they should be. It is an expression which has been in use for thousands of years and in essence, can be seen to imply the working together of all aspects of a community without losing the special personality and beliefs of the individual projects and people involved and we acknowledge that diverse beliefs and practices can present complex and difficult challenges creating chasms that often-times are difficult to bridge. However, rather than focus on the discordant differences, our own goals are to create ‘spaces’ where tolerance, understanding and co-existence can be found, demonstrating how together, we can live well, whilst remaining different. Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable. So says the inspirational Kenyan proverb extolling the power of Unity.
It is with this in mind that I am in the process of developing a Cooperation Circle, (CC), affiliated with the United Religions Initiative (URI). The URI is a global grassroots interfaith network that cultivates peace and justice by engaging people to bridge religious and cultural differences and work together for the good of their communities and the world. Cooperation Circles (CCs) are the heart of URI. They are independently organised, self-governing and self-funding and I think it is fairly safe to say that our own organisation fits within the remits. You can find out more about URI and CC's at the bottom of this post.
A weekend that was heralding the autumnal chills, once again saw me heading towards Ammerdown Centre , my purpose to meet with Karimah Stauch, the European Coordinator of URI.
A weekend that was heralding the autumnal chills, once again saw me heading towards Ammerdown Centre , my purpose to meet with Karimah Stauch, the European Coordinator of URI.
Unity Candle at the Harvest Show Autumn is a time of harvest and celebratory occasions, not only of that which the land has given us but also a period in which we are offered the opportunity to consider and ‘gather in’ all that we have sown and nurtured throughout the year within our own lives and the positive differences we might have brought to the world around us. It is also a time of endings. The sagacious ones amongst us will be thinking also of the necessary new seeds that need reaping and nurturing over the winter months, until the ground is once again ready to bring to fruition the bounty necessary for our ongoing nourishment.
My journey towards my destination takes me through fields and woodland and, whilst the radio informed me of a whole village of killings and the women and children kidnapped in Northern Iraq, my sadness, already profound over the atrocities that humans can perform on one another, deepened further in the autumnal energies. I thought about the tortures that will be inflicted onto those souls until they convert from their own religious beliefs. As I drew closer, reflecting on my own work in the name of harmony and peace and all that might have been 'harvested’ in its name this year, thoughts of pointlessness and hopelessness, like the autumnal mists that settle over the low-lands of Somerset and cloud our ability to see into the distance, whispered despondency into my spirit.
My journey towards my destination takes me through fields and woodland and, whilst the radio informed me of a whole village of killings and the women and children kidnapped in Northern Iraq, my sadness, already profound over the atrocities that humans can perform on one another, deepened further in the autumnal energies. I thought about the tortures that will be inflicted onto those souls until they convert from their own religious beliefs. As I drew closer, reflecting on my own work in the name of harmony and peace and all that might have been 'harvested’ in its name this year, thoughts of pointlessness and hopelessness, like the autumnal mists that settle over the low-lands of Somerset and cloud our ability to see into the distance, whispered despondency into my spirit.
Karimah Stauch and Morgana West Ammerdown is a remarkable place in a beautiful setting, nestling in woods next to a Stately Home, surrounded by beautiful landscaped gardens and parkland and I have been fortunate to have visited on a few occasions. As my speed slows to the required five mph on the long driveway, its soothing calmness sweeps over me. Since opening in 1973, it has developed into an internationally respected centre with a special focus on interfaith dialogue, peace and reconciliation. Karimah, the person I was here to meet, had arrived, along with others, in a very packed minibus in order to participate in Three Faiths Encounter, an event where, for the past twenty-five years, people of Jewish, Islamic and Christian faiths have converged to talk, share, discover each other’s worship and learn from each other. Their theme this year, ‘Who Is My Neighbour?’ brought regret that this was not my reason for being there.
Sheik Bashir, the Unity Candle and Morgana Karimah was attending, not only under the mantle of her own faith, but also in her role as URI Coordinator along with two other URI CCs: The German Muslim-League Bonn CC and URI Germany CC. I was very appreciative that she had been willing to take some time out to chat with me about the organisation and allow me the opportunity to bring to her an awareness of some of our own work here in Glastonbury. Her welcome was heart-warming and my instincts have nudged me to say that our paths will once again cross in the future. Others attending the conference were also willing to take time out and chat with me. Rabbi Michael Hilton, a Reform rabbi of Kol Chai Hatch End Jewish Community and writer, author of ‘The Christian Effect on Jewish Life’, Sheikh Bashir Dultz, the spiritual leader of the German Muslim-League and co-founder of global URI and its branches and Peace Ambassador Tatomir Ion-Marius, World Peace Prayer Society representative, all re-stoked the fire beneath me, evaporating the mists of earlier and encouraged me to forge ahead in creating the Cooperation Circle.
Before I left, I gifted a Glastonbury Unity Candle to Karima; this will return to Germany with her where it will be used in URI events. In return I was given a poster that reminds us of the Golden Rule, the ethic of reciprocity in that we should treat others as we would like others to treat us. The words on the poster are the maxims from many different beliefs around the world that reflect the Golden Rule, so known since the 1600's. However, the concept itself pre-dates it and can be found as far back as early Confucianism. (551–479 BC)
Before I left, I gifted a Glastonbury Unity Candle to Karima; this will return to Germany with her where it will be used in URI events. In return I was given a poster that reminds us of the Golden Rule, the ethic of reciprocity in that we should treat others as we would like others to treat us. The words on the poster are the maxims from many different beliefs around the world that reflect the Golden Rule, so known since the 1600's. However, the concept itself pre-dates it and can be found as far back as early Confucianism. (551–479 BC)
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Karimah Stauch, the European Coordinator of URI, Rabbi Michael Hilton, a Reform rabbi of Kol Chai Hatch End Jewish Community and writer, Sheikh Bashir Dultz, the spiritual leader of the German Muslim-League and co-founder of global URI and its branches and Peace Ambassador Tatomir Ion-Marius, World Peace Prayer Society representative and MW.
All over the world people of different beliefs tear each other apart with words and actions and no matter how great or small our peace work is as individuals, together we contribute towards greater understanding; in turn leading us closer towards reconciliation. Peace/bridge building between diverse beliefs and ideas has most likely been around since the third human joined the first two and my words here are nothing new, having been said by many before me. However, if our Centre and Sanctuary can become a circle of cooperation and our own work offer just one drop of nourishing water into an ocean of humanity then, no matter how hopeless or how pointless it sometimes seems to us as single individuals, together, we offer a considerable contribution into the seas of Harmony and Understanding. No matter how insignificant, as individuals, we belief our efforts to be, together we can be strong. Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.
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