Candlemas retreat on Facebook and possibly here too

 Hello friends.

As you'll probably know, we (me, Buzzfloyd, Tony) run a Facebook group called The Campfire Church. 

We started it to offer fellowship and connection to folk online when their regular churches couldn't meet through the lockdown months of the pandemic. We met every Sunday on Facebook through that time — a very happy international fellowship.

Then when restrictions eased and the churches began to open up again, we judged it time to stop our every-Sunday gatherings.

But when we asked within our group what people would be doing now, we found that during the pandemic so much had changed that 'going back to normal' wasn't necessarily what felt right. 

The pandemic season has been a very revealing time, during which we (you too, I expect) have learned a lot about ourselves and the world around us. 

This phenomenon meant that Tony, Buzzfloyd and I, and several who belonged to The Campfire Church, felt differently about how they related to the church community. Things had changed.

We saw that just disbanding The Campfire Church would therefore leave some people with no fellowship at all, and they would all miss each other — we came to be such good friends through those Sunday meetings. On the other hand, we didn't want to set up a rival church organisation to pull people away from the faith families where they already belonged.

So we've moved on to a different pattern.

On the second Sunday of every month, here in Hastings in East Sussex, we have a small physical gathering (we can only wodge about a dozen people max into our front room, including children), called Second Sunday Circle.

Whenever there is a fifth Sunday to the month, The Campfire Church meets on Facebook in the usual way.

We also looked at where there were gaps to be filled. For instance, some of our people are elderly or disabled, and many of us feel less confident about going out late at night than we once did — the lockdown months somewhat shrank our optimism and resilience, and increased our sense of vulnerability, I suspect. So we offered a Campfire Church midnight gathering on Facebook, for people who love to go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, but feel daunted now about venturing forth late at night.

And at the beginning of February we are offering a Candlemas Retreat online at The Campfire Church on Facebook. So people will set the time aside in their own homes, and we will meet online at intervals through the time frame of the retreat.

It's called Journey Into Light, and it's set up here on Facebook — there's nothing in it yet, obviously, except an introductory post giving the outline of what the time together will contain, because it won't begin until February; but nearer the time I will begin to put up various posts (activities and links) to resource those coming to the retreat for the quiet times between the sessions.

This retreat will start on Friday 4th February at 8pm GMT, and run through to Sunday 6th February late afternoon (GMT timing).

I'm telling you about this in case you think you'd like to join in. I know you sometimes miss me if I don't post here very often, and since I last posted a few days ago I've been busy getting our Second Sunday Circle ready (we met yesterday) and beginning to plan the Candlemas Retreat. So if you are on Facebook you can connect with me more than if you look just look out for me posting here.

I do know, though, that some of you find social media overwhelming, and really don't want to be on Facebook, and would rather not open a Facebook account even to go to something you'd like to attend.

What I'm wondering — and I haven't totally thought this through, it might be a disaster — is whether, for those of you who'd love to come to the retreat but really don't want to be on Facebook, I might be able to offer some level of participation here on Kindred of the Quiet Way.

Of course, you wouldn't be able to participate as fully; I could give you links to the short videoed input talks, and give you the text of the prayers, and links out to any music we'll be including (devotional songs), and I can post links and info for any activities etc — but you won't be able to join in with the conversation, which we do by text comments on posts, not by Zoom-style rooms (as many of us are introverts, this works well for us).  

I don't know how well it would work, but we could try it. So I just thought I'd run the idea by you, and see what you think. Ideal would be for you to join The Campfire Church — or you can just join the Journey Into Light retreat, as it has/is its own Facebook group — because that would be the most rewarding way to experience it, but if for your own reasons you can't stay Facebook, do you like the idea of a more limited participation here?

Just in case you were wondering, let me say that I made a decision that any ministry I offer is part of grace, so it's given freely as a gift to those who find it useful. There is no cost to attend the retreat on Facebook, and you will not be asked for money at any group I run. Keep it simple, keep it small, keep it free, is my approach to church.