25-27 April 2008

A Sense of Place

Rogation Weekend with Brother Samuel

Rogation-tide is traditionally the time for ‘beating the bounds’ – walking around the boundaries of the parish and asking for God’s blessing on the fields, the woodlands, the growing crops, the animals and the work of our hands. It used also to be a way of identifying and honouring ‘this place’ as ‘home’ and a celebration of the network of relationships of which we were a part. With the rapidly increasing mobility of peoples around the world, not just from countryside to urban area but from city to city, we are losing that sense of belonging anywhere in particular and of being part of communities which nurture and sustain us.

This weekend at Hilfield is open to all who want to enjoy the Friary in the full flush of spring. We’ll explore the value of knowing your place wherever you happen to live – whether in countryside, in city or in suburb. We’ll be sharing the stories of particular places and talking about ways of becoming more ‘rooted’ where we are. We’ll be recognising the ‘scandal of particularity’ in the Christian and Jewish stories, how in them God is revealed through our understanding of place. We’ll be looking at the particular nineteen acres of Hilfield Friary and what they can show us, and – oh, yes – we’ll be beating the bounds!