There is a story told of an estate owner. He managed his land by letting it out to tenants. Each one held a plot, and they had freedom to develop it as they saw fit. The story doesn’t say how much help each of them got in establishing themselves, but other stories let us assume […]
Category: Mission
What activities would you like to see Quartz getting underway? Art installations in St Johns building and elsewhere? Outerweave #SensingSpirituality in community settings? Forest Church? Ignation Spirituality? Blended online/physical housegroup? The Floating Monastery? Other ideas … Please comment below.
Quartz is a partnership between St John’s Dumfries and Wordsmith Crafts CIC. Simon is supported a day a week to work flexibly to support Quartz activities, maintain this site and help people use the arts to experience, explore, and express spirituality through the arts, and for those that choose to, to enter into our heritage […]
In the 1980’s and 90’s something called “Alternative Worship” emerged. What happened, where did the explosion of creative energy lead, how many of the communities are still recognisable and what are the people who were involved doing now? As a start, here are some links to introduce readers who may be unfamilar with the concept. […]
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Time to Reflect
There is a flow between thinking and doing. It is good to plan ahead, but sometimes you just need to get stuck in and get on with it. This was the approach we took with Quartz. The time has come now to sit back and reflect on what has happened, remember why we started out […]
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50 days later
The festivities of Easter weekend, and the Easter holidays are over. Scotland is still constrained by lockdown precautions. What did the first Christians feel like during the days between pascha and pentecost? After around 2000 years you might think that the surprise is worn out, but has it? All living beings adapt to survive. I’m […]
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Hurt
Today’s lent thinking revolves around Jesus praying in Gethsemane. The story describes him feeling powerful emotions as he anticipates where his path will lead him. Most people avoid fear and anger and the situations where we may experience these emotional states. There is a tradition of “Via Negitiva” though. I react badly to (hate?) Disney […]
Today is the day (16th of March) The Eco Congregation Scotland network are running a series of events to help you think about things you can do in response to climate change. Especially since representatives of the current ‘winners’ in the status quo are gathering in Glasgow this year. You may wish to sign up […]
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Stewardship
Our stewardship course met on Burns night this recently. The text we looked at was about bickering pharisees and a man who tried to hoard his wealth rather than share his windfall. (read it here) It seems that if Burns invested in anything it was in experiences, and the words to describe them. His sponsors […]
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