Everyday Icons (2)

Just back from Everyday Icons, a day organised by the Diocesan Initiative on Spirituality in the St Albans Diocese which was held at All Saints Hertford and was designed to provide new ways of seeing and new ways of understanding all that forms part of modern day living.

Worship was led by broken, a growing alternative worship community which gathers at St Mary’s, East Barnet on the second Sunday of each month. The opening worship focused on the diversity of the Body of Christ and the closing worship on calling out to Christ in the busyness of our lives. Richard Watson, a facebook friend, is the priest at St Mary's and led a seminar on Messy Spirituality at the day, so it was good to catch up with his news and to experience worship with broken.

The keynote speaker was Brian Draper who spoke about Spiritual Intelligence (the title and topic of his latest book). This is a term coined by Danah Zohar which builds on Daniel Goleman's work on Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) involves values and meaning and is the unifier of Intellectual Intelligence (IQ) and Emotional Intelligence. Brian unpacked his understanding and application of the term in an entertaining and apposite fashion before suggesting for icons of SQ in the alarm clock (awakening), the eye (seeing), the paint brush and palette (creativity), and the arrow (passing it on).

We uncovered several synergies between Brian's presentation and my own material in the workshop I led on praying through the everyday. The idea of ordinary objects such as clocks and paint brushes as icons of the divine was fundamental but we also linked our discussion of prayerful attention to Brian's story of feeling at one with his surrounding while running. I showed my Windows on the World photographs in talking of seeing everyday objects from fresh perspectives and looking for shapes, patterns and significance. I also shared the following developing meditation on prayer as attention paid:

Prayer is attention paid
noticing the beauty
and interest
of pattern
and content
in ordinary occurrence

Attention paid
is giving
and receiving –
giving notice,
interest, recognition
and receiving
the gift
of the world’s being

Being at
attention
is
alertness
readiness
preparation
intention
prayer

Being at-
tension
is
paradox
betweenness
standing in
the broken middle
receiving the
beauty and
terror of
the world’s being
praying
the generative words,
‘let there be.’

There was a real buzz about this day with excellent numbers attending and people really engaging with the material presented. Local churches have another event planned on similar lines as Ian Mobsby, Priest-Missioner with the Moot Community, will be leading an evening entitled New Ways of doing Old Spirituality at the Mayflower, Hertingfordbury on Friday 6th November at 7.30pm.

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The Staple Singers - Reach Out, Touch A Hand, Make A Friend.