Lee Abbey and prayer stations

I recommend a week away at Lee Abbey in North Devon if you want peace and quiet and time to reflect. I know North Devon having visited many years with family living close by. In the summer of 2006 I was sitting in the car park to Lee Bay looking up at the Abbey enjoying the beautiful scenery with my wife and her parents. I had thought to myself that I would like to spend some time at Lee Abbey perhaps on my own. I had thought of it as a Christian retreat centre but wasn’t sure spending a week away in silence was what I needed. When I saw that Jonny Baker was due to lead a series on “Re-imagining Worship”, the combination of the beautiful surroundings and hearing directly from Jonny was irresistible. Having mis-read the title for the week as re-imaging worship I thought this would be more about using multi-media in church. What I soon discovered was that there was a lot more than that being opened up for me. The community have links with other communities like Iona and draw on the contemplative traditions of music and liturgy, much of which was taught aurally. One singing workshop was about the way other parts of the world do not rely on written forms to pass on their music and therefore pieces of music evolve as they are passed on. Jonny led morning sessions and there was free time in the afternoons to enjoy the beautiful scenery with guided walks available for those who wanted to enjoy them. Evenings were varied and included a great evening of story telling from a Birmingham based theatre company. We spent one evening developing themes for a service using the idea of “stations” t be used two evenings later. Using the inspiration of the Rembrandt’s painting of the “Return of the Prodigal”, 5 groups created parts of a worship space for others to explore. Read about a previous use of this idea in Jonny Bakers Worship tricks. Lee Abbey chapel was a quiet place available at the end each day for a short contemplation and simple prayers were led offered with quiet music playing and helpful projected images. They created prayer stations which were available to visit through the last day. Follow this link for more about their creative ideas for prayer stations.