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Lent Course 2010
Every year during the season of Lent, we invite external speakers to spend time with us as we focus on a particular aspect of our Lenten faith. This year we will be "Negotiating the wildernesses of Modern Life". There is a high price tag to the ‘Wilderness Experiences’ offered in travel brochures, because those who venture into such daunting places need supportive expertise from people who have been there before. The wildernesses that we would not choose to visit, but which nevertheless sometimes have to be crossed, are equally costly. This Lent, we will explore the landscape of some of those places in a series of midweek talks from outside speakers who are familiar with the territory, and therefore well placed to advise how it can be tamed by faith and hope.
All talks will take place at the Middle Room at 8.00pm on Wednesday evenings in Lent and a retiring collection will be taken to cover expenses.
Negotiating the Wildernesses of Modern Life - Midweek Talks
Weds 24th February, Middle Room, 8.00 pm to 9.30
The Rev'd Roger J Hall MBE, QHC, Deputy Priest in Ordinary to HM the Queen and Chaplain HM Tower of London will talk about his experience of ministering to the armed services who face death on a daily basis in the bewilderment of the world’s conflict zones.
Weds 3rd March, Middle Room, 8.00 pm to 9.30
The Chief Inspector of HM Prisons, Dame Anne Owers is very familiar with the conditions facing those behind bars and will help us think about where hope and despair is to be found in that environment.
Weds 10th March, Middle Room, 8.00 pm to 9.30 pm
Revd Kathy Wiles has walked alongside many people who have lost their way in the wilderness of mental distress. As Senior Chaplain in the Department for Spiritual Care of the SW London Mental Health Trust, she will share her experience of that unfamiliar place, where God is often hard to find.
Weds 17th March, Middle Room, 8.00 pm to 9.30 pm
The difficult territory of family breakdown and homelessness will be addressed by Brian Smith of St Christopher’s Fellowship, a charity based in Putney, which – amongst other things – runs our closest overnight hostel, now threatened with closure.
Weds 24th March, Middle Room, 8.00 pm to 9.30 pm
The Chair of the UK Trustees of L’Arche, Kathleen O’Gorman will talk about living in the wilderness of disability, by drawing on her involvement in the residential communities founded by the French theologian, Jean Vanier.
