Education

"Formation Sundays", "Lent Course" & "Quiet Days"

We take our faith seriously at the Chapel but also believe in having fun. We believe in asking questions and exploring our faith with intellectual integrity, even if it leaves us confused from time to time! Part of our annual programme is to have a series of Sunday Studies, which we call, "Formation Sundays". These take place on Sundays through the year. They begin at 12.30pm with lunch and then a talk by our Visiting Preacher and finish at 2pm.

Examples of past Formation Sundays include a talk by choir member, Katy Cooper on her Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. Previous to that Stewart Trotter and players, offered a presentation on "The Witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth" to align with the Season of All Saints and All Souls!

Our Lent Talks take place on Wednesdays throughout Lent in the Chapel Room at Grosvenor Chapel (7pm light supper of soup & cheese, 7.30pm Presentation). Examples of series that we have done in the past:

"Lear in Lent", exploring themes of the play and their relation to Christian faith and practice. We had speakers such as Prof. Sarah Churchwell, Professor of American Literature & Public Understanding of the Humanities, University of East Anglia:

"Blindness, appearance and reality"; Dr. Dale Mathers, Jungian Psychotherapist & Author: "Broken relationships in the family "; The Rev'd Dr. Malcolm Guite, Bye Fellow & Chaplain to Girton College, Cambridge: "Compassion and Reconciliation";  Fr Richard Carter, Associate Vicar of St Martin's-in-the Field & former member of the Melanesian Brotherhood: "Wilderness, nakedness and the fool: voices from the margins.  The perspective of experiences of grief,  homelessness and exile."

We have also had the following speakers talk at our Formation Sundays :

1.) The Rev'd Dr Jo Bailey-Wells who talked about how to read and interpret the Old Testament
2.) Canon Prof. Paul Avis, who gave a presentation about the nature of Anglicanism and what it is to be an Anglican
3.) The Rev'd Mark Dean, Chaplain to the University of the Arts, London, who offered a presentation on "Modern Art & Christianity", 4.) Dr Eddie Adams,  'What did Paul'schurcheslooklikeandcan/shouldwetrytoreplicatethemtoday?" which was a Montgomery Trust Lecture.
5.) Canon Lucy Winkett, "The Theology & Experience of Women's Ordination".

6.) Fr David Rushton, Chaplain to the Royal Free Hospital will preach at Candlemas and give a talk at our Parish Lunch on "What is Christian Healing?"

Our last Advent Quiet Day was - "Cultivating Gratefulness & Expectancy in Advent" - at the St Michael's Convent, Ham Common. We have also had a Pilgrimage to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.