AROUND 50 lay ministers from across our diocese spent a weekend being creative at their annual conference.

They came to the Meon Valley Hotel in Shedfield for a Readers’ Conference that was led by members of the Hopeweavers’ Community, a dispersed religious community based in Southampton.

Jen Lambert and the Rev Philippa Mills, who are guardians of the Hopeweavers’ Community, led sessions that aimed to help lay ministers spend time in retreat, with a change of pace and time to reflect. It also allowed people to be creative and try different ways in which to engage with God – maybe to try in their parishes or workplaces, or maybe just to use themselves.

The framework for the weekend was Psalm 84, which inspired four sessions. The first, on the theme of pilgrimage, prompted the chance to walk a labyrinth or to take part in an observational walk in which they might notice new things.

The second, based on ‘a lovely dwelling place’ aimed to help people to connect with God by looking for glimpses of the divine in the everyday. The third session examined the dry valley and a place of springs. For some this involved using water colours, sitting by the fountain or examining how pebbles are transformed when wet.

And the final session – based on ‘blessed is the one who trusts in you’ – allowed lay ministers to reflect on what God had been saying to them, and to have a go a weaving as they wove together what they had learned.

Philippa said: “People were free to engage with as much or as little of the weekend as they wanted.

“I spoke about how we often have our best ideas or most inspirational thoughts not when we're sitting at our computer keyboards but when we are doing a relaxing or repetitive activity – gardening, walking, running, walking the dog, taking a bath, knitting, or woodwork. I referred to Brian Draper's 'Soulfulness' where he talks about the different kinds of brainwaves and the simple theory behind why this is so.

“We encouraged people to engage with some of the simple creative activities we brought with us to allow their deeper thoughts and prayer to surface. It's not necessarily about producing a beautiful thing, it's actually about the process!

“Several people said they weren’t normally creative, but were having a go! We were really encouraged by how many engaged with the themes and activities. We had a number of comments on how good it was to slow down. And the hotel worked really well as a venue.”