The End of the Story: Goodbye from St Peter’s House
The doors will soon close for a final time here at St Peter’s House, and a peace is falling on the building. The furniture, plants
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These blogs, writings and podcasts explore Human Being in its fluid, multidimensional, rainbow-hued variations. You’ll see the seasons change and lock-downs come-and-go through these blogs, and hear different voices and questions rise up. We invite you into our journey of wondering, and hope our writing kindles fires of curiosity or dissent! Either way, slow down and feel it all…..
The doors will soon close for a final time here at St Peter’s House, and a peace is falling on the building. The furniture, plants
I started as Chaplaincy Assistant & Engagement Officer at St Peter’s House in September 2021. A fresh-faced Drama graduate, I began my work here in
Today saw our ‘All Will Be Well’ artwork rolled-up and removed from the front of St Peter’s House. It has been strange and sad watching
Here is September, nudging us to Autumn as the days roll by and the leaves slip into their rich auburn hues. Children safely back at
St Peter’s House has always been a place of The Unexpected. Unexpected people, unexpected questions, unexpected conversations, unexpected experiences, unexpected news. Some good, some bad.
Earlier this year we hosted an International Women’s Day event here at St Peter’s House. Within that we invited diverse women to come and share
We work with our friends and partners at FareShare Greater Manchester as we work to fight food injustice and reduce food waste. You’ll find our treasures we unearth weekly at FareShare transformed into plates of goodness at Milk & Honey and our regular ‘Alchemy’ Supper Clubs, and the Well Packs we provide to our local community is also resourced through this partnership.
As a new year rolls in, The Well has now distributed 50k meals on and around our campus community. What started as a short-term covid-19 project has evolved into a long-term project in response to food injustice and rising cost of living – and our little team has worked hard to create each of these meals.
Our programme at St Peter’s House will invite you be be Alchemists….. So, what does that mean? There are many definitions and understandings of alchemy, but they all promise transformation. Something new emerging as different core elements are brought together. And these threads run through our programme.
I can’t say I’ve been counting down to July and Disability Pride Month, because – in all honesty – I’d never heard of it until it rolled around. It was only through some dedicated research (i.e. an Instagram scroll…) that it entered my consciousness, and it turns out I’m pretty much a standard example in my “Disability…what?” response.
We are seeking to appoint an experienced Assistant Chef who will work alongside our Head Chef to prepare and serve our delicious daily breakfast and lunch menu.
“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.” Richard Rohr
Oh yes, I do agree with this!
Too many times has something glinted with promise, beckoning with a ‘new you!’ sales-pitch (no matter how well-intended) assuring that this [book/programme/practice] is the one – that a new, more balanced, more ‘well’ and somehow better way of living lies ahead. That with work, thinking, reading or just following the right steps this new way of living is within reach.
The reality is that living – full colour, getting-it-wrong-most-days, gloriously imperfect but keeping trucking-on-anyway – is a messy, fluid and multi-layered business and we can’t think ourselves to better versions of it.
I’ve learnt that my thinking must never be too set-apart, abstract, ‘venerated’ or idealistic that it steers me from the path of real-life. To live ourself into new mindsets we need to stay open to being wrong, to challenge and to change – to looking through the little door in our souls that leads to darkness and owning that those shadowy corners have a home in us too.
Living is done day-by-day, moment-by-moment, and it’s only through consciously cultivating our awareness of this that we might reach new, more peaceful, all-encompassing ways of thinking that may restore wholeness to us as individuals, to our communities, our world and our Mother Earth.
Writing to the early Christian community in Rome, an early church leader called Paul offered advice [you could substitute the name ‘God’ for another word for a higher, spiritual source if you find this helpful – or maybe just the deep wisdom within yourself]:
“So here’s what I want you to do…..Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering….. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.”
Romans 12: 1-2
So as we ‘truck along’, mucking-up, giving up daily and starting again, life calls to us for our attention. For us to be still for a moment – noticing the new paths that our feet are beating and the journey as it unfolds day by-day. Drawing deep energy from the reserves of Love within that connect us to ourselves and others, anchoring us moment-by-moment to both the mysterious reaches of the galaxies and the intricacies of our own human hearts. And as we live these very ordinary lives – fumbling, often painful, never straight-forward, but sometimes wonderful human lives – our Human Being is itself a gift of endless curiosity and encounter.
“Wanderer there is no road, the road is made by walking…”
Antonio Machado
Love what we’re doing at St Peter’s House? Want to keep connected and find out about what we might do next?
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