Have returned from 2 days at Greenbelt and been reminded of who I am apart from a church leader! Sometimes it feels a bit crazy being in a local church - in a good way. And it is good to connect with other crazy people.
Whilst I was away Woodhouse Park Family Centre got bigger - and is now called Wythenshawe Community Initiative. It reminded me of some partnership work we have been doing over the last couple of years with St. Marks church, Luther King House in Manchester and them by grouping together leaders and children to go on a week-long holiday. This was the labyrinth we used last year. It was designed & created by Hannah Kidd from Luther King House who was a youth worker in Wythenshawe last year. The theme of this labyrinth is social justice. There were 10 stops around this labyrinth with things to look at, think about, taste, do, draw and share. We shared it by going around in small groups with an adult of 3-4 children and taking time to talk and listen quietly as we went. There was music on in the background as we did it and it was an amazing experience for everyone involved. Two of the liveliest lads on the holiday spent about 40 mins going around together and going back to places in the labyrinth to do them again and to sit and chat there a while! On its return the labyrinth has been used in local primary schools in Wythenshawe to share about social justice, fair trade and the Make Poverty History campaign. We have used 2 labyrinths in the last 12 months in connection with St. Marks and they have both been really interesting and creative ways of inviting anyone to participate and explore spirituality and its connections with the world - people, places and god.
