Reflection Group
Wendy Callister, a group member, writes:
Saturday mornings see a group of people entering the St Michael's Crypt to discuss topics chosen from a series of books called ‘Visions of ...(Faith, Hope, Love, Glory, Grace)’, anthologies of reflections by a former Oxford chaplain, William Sykes.
The books bring together a selection of quotations whose aim is to trigger discussion and they contain a wide variety of material. Subjects have ranged from ‘Listening’ (I particularly relished the quote from Hubert van Zeller, who said ‘Samuel was not told to say ‘Listen Lord for your servant speaks’) to more theological virtues such as ‘Grace’.
Arising from discussion in the autumn of 2009, the group felt it would benefit from the addition of a more scriptural element and so every 4 weeks or so we review passages from John Stott’s commentary ‘Through the Bible through the year’. Perhaps appropriately, we started with his selected readings from the Book of Genesis and in January we studied a number of Christmas Gospel readings and reflected on our responses to them. These, and other readings, have provided a way of learning more from the Bible particularly relating the Old to the New Testament, which in turn has led to expression of interesting views on the nature of Scripture.
John Beastall leads the Reflection group (pictured above at its annual New Year brunch) and welcomes anyone who wishes to join. It meets weekly throughout the year with a summer recess in August and September. It works best with 6 to 8 people but often we have more. Like the Book Group, if enough people show an interest, a second group could be formed, so do contact John via the Parish Office if you wish to ‘dip your toe into the water’. I find the Reflection Group an uplifting start to the weekend after a busy week at work and I speak for us all when I say thank you to John for his quiet leadership in steering the discussion so that we always (hopefully) listen and respect each other’s views.