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Meeting Notes June & July 2019

Our Membership Service in June was entitled ‘Serving the Future’. As often happens in Cirencester, time constraints put pressure on both the Service and the subsequent consideration of what affirmation of membership we felt happy with. The July Service felt more relaxed and benefited from some of Mark’s own introductory words. The Service focused on relationship and Mark included […]

Meeting Notes May 2019

In May Mark’s Service explored with us what helped us to feel ‘held’ in a supportive way, individually and as a congregation. This opened up some frank and helpful ideas. The theme of our May meeting in Swindon was Freedom, Reason and Tolerance’. The wonderfully varied readings in David Taylor’s opening Reflection were a good […]

Meeting Notes April 2019

Mark’s April Service in Cirencester Friends’ Meeting House was an interesting and enlightening comparison between passages in St John’s Gospel and some writings in earlier religious traditions such as Buddhism. The Service was shortened to allow time for the AGM. At our Easter meeting in Swindon our varied contributions shone bright lights on aspects of some familiar themes: […]

Meeting Notes March 2019

Mark’s Service in March looked at how we could become more aware of the gifts of our lives and how we could pass them on to others. He enlarged on this theme to explore how we could introduce a greater element of exchange into the way our everyday economy works. We finished by looking at several concrete examples […]

Meeting Notes February 2019

Having wished Mark well on his Chinese holiday we welcomed Kath Forder to take our February Service. Kath noted several important anniversaries, dwelling especially on the events of the Civil Rights campaign in America and the death of Unitarian Minister James Reeb. This brought back memories for Miles and myself. Miles had briefly met Martin Luther King Junior […]

Meeting Notes January 2019

Our cheerful frugal lunch in December together with contributions from the Swindon Fellowship raised £137 for Crisis at Christmas. The January Service stressed both the pressing realities of today’s world and the need to treat others, however different and wherever they are, with compassion. Mark’s Service raised more questions than could be answered. I should have liked more time […]

Meeting Notes December 2018

Our December Service was preceded by a ‘frugal lunch’ of soup and bread and cheese in aid of Crisis at Christmas at which £137 was raised.  Rev. Mark Hutchinson   took a seasonal Advent Service. As usual there were intertwining themes: the role of light, the myth of the Christmas Story, our need to review our […]

Meeting Notes November 2018

Mark’s Service in November shone lights on the pagan festival of Samhain and the Christian season of All Souls. We remembered, using a powerful reading and at another point lighting candles of remembrance, all those known to us or not, who had died in the year. As we met in Swindon amid the fallen leaves […]