CREATIVE THINKING
Back in August I was fortunate to be able to attend the Great Hucklow Summer School. This was the first time for me and as the week approached I grew ever more apprehensive having signed up for the 'Creativity and Love' workshop. Too late I realised that this meant craft work for which I am famously known as a disaster by family and friends. My worries were totally misplaced. Although I would end the week as clumsy as when I arrived, the week was a revelation of the wellspring of love and creativity within our Unitarian community.
The week's theme was aptly entitled 'Building Beloved Community'. I say aptly titled as that is exactly what was revealed to us as the week progressed. Each morning the whole community, both young and old, assembled together in silence listening to appropriate music, sometimes followed by the group singing the Taize Chant – Veni Sancte Spiritus. It wasn't just the children who hung on to every word of our community's storyteller as she weaved her magic words. The children having been sung to their workshop with the words 'Go now in Peace' we settled down to hear Cal Courtney at his most inspirational showing us how in our brokenness we are all beloved. In accepting and holding the hand of the other, without imposing or expecting change, the beloved community comes into being. This was no pessimistic message or lack of message which many claim is the problem we have as Unitarians.
For a week we experienced 'Beloved Community'. There were no anxieties about the future or worries about where the next generation of Unitarians might be. The children were an integral part of our community. They played, sang, danced, laughed, acted and loved us into being.
Each evening the adults walked in silence by candlelight to the chapel where different leaders offered an Epilogue creating acts of worship both creative and profound drawing on the artistic gifts within the community. On the final evening the Epilogue was an offering bringing together the essence from each of the three main workshops running through the week. 'The Spirit, The Body and Words' eloquently expressed the poetry of words and movement reflecting life of the Spirit. Through 'Creativity and Love' a wonderful piece of felt, lovingly created by the group, showed how the energy of love and creativity is woven through our individual and shared lives. All ended on an outrageous note as a talented musician from the 'Spirituality and Ageing Group' freed the organ from its Sunday best and led the group in a celebration of life. But even this did not wake the children who had either fallen asleep on laps or on the floor.
The week brimmed over with creative talent from musicians, dancers, painters, writers and actors, far too much to convey in one short piece. We laughed, cried and played a beloved community into being. It behoves all of us, including those less artistically gifted, to think creatively ensuring a continuing celebration which can be shared amongst those within our Unitarian family and beyond.
The Unitarian - November 2005 - "Thought for the Month" by Joan Wilkinson