{"id":2138,"date":"2021-11-28T23:34:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T23:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/?page_id=2138"},"modified":"2022-01-09T09:27:01","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T09:27:01","slug":"quaker-autumn-retreat-october-2021","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/december-2021\/quaker-autumn-retreat-october-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Quaker Autumn Retreat October 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>Ellen Bassani<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2139\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2139\" style=\"width: 243px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Autumn-Leaves.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2139\" src=\"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Autumn-Leaves.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"243\" height=\"293\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2139\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by SL Granum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The idea for our retreat arose out of a desire to refocus on Quaker roots, the seeking of the Light within a gathered contemplative stillness. We event organisers (Deb Arrowsmith, Ellen Bassani, Anthea Richards, and Carol Saker) had discerned that this aspect of Quakerism risks becoming secondary, especially in times of pressing need for social action.<\/p>\n<p>My blindness has allowed me to catch glimpses of the deep joy in surrendering to the promptings of the spirit, and I have arrived there through learning to place my complete trust into the hands of God and the kindness of strangers. Where I have felt hesitation in trusting, I\u2019ve come to appreciate that I am bridled by my fear and a false belief in total personal independence. Accordingly, I led a retreat exercise in which sighted participants were first blindfolded and then paired with sighted guides upon whom the blindfolded would need to depend totally as they allowed themselves to be led out unsighted along a busy street and also through the confines of 43 St Giles. My idea was that these brave participants would be inspired to glimpse the blocks impeding their own pathways to trust and surrender.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\" width=\"312\"><a class=\"fasc-button fasc-size-medium fasc-type-glossy fasc-rounded-medium fasc-ico-before dashicons-arrow-left-alt fasc-style-bold\" style=\"background-color: #0315a3; color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/december-2021\/making-spiritual-compost\/\">Previous Article<\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: right;\" width=\"312\"><a class=\"fasc-button fasc-size-medium fasc-type-glossy fasc-rounded-medium fasc-ico-before dashicons-arrow-right-alt fasc-style-bold\" style=\"background-color: #0315a3; color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/december-2021\/retreat-sketches\/\">Next Article<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"fasc-button fasc-size-medium fasc-type-glossy fasc-rounded-medium fasc-ico-before dashicons-arrow-up-alt fasc-style-bold\" style=\"background-color: #0315a3; color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/december-2021\/\">Back to December 2021 Newsletter Main Page<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>Forty-Three<\/em> Newsletter \u2022 Number 512 \u2022 December 2021<br \/>\n<\/strong>Oxford Friends Meeting<br \/>\n43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"mailto:newsletter@oxfordquakers.org\">newsletter@oxfordquakers.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ellen Bassani The idea for our retreat arose out of a desire to refocus on Quaker roots, the seeking of the Light within a gathered contemplative stillness. We event organisers (Deb Arrowsmith, Ellen Bassani, Anthea Richards, and Carol Saker) had discerned that this aspect of Quakerism risks becoming secondary, especially in times of pressing need &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/december-2021\/quaker-autumn-retreat-october-2021\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Quaker Autumn Retreat October 2021<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"parent":2097,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2138","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2255,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2138\/revisions\/2255"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}