Exploring being on the margins through art, research and story
With input from Kate Cornwell, Tim Dixon, and Suzanne Nockels
Date: 12 June 2024, 10:00-16:00
Venue: Central URC Church, 60 Norfolk St, Sheffield S1 2JB
Price: £35
A discount code is available for the Free Church Healthcare chaplain.
Chris Swift writes about how chaplains are not simply on the margins between church systems and the medical paradigm that dominates the hospital, but between life and death, a Christendom past, and a contemporary spirituality that has rejected the rights of external authority. Yet, being perceived as on the border or edge can be a place of creativity that bring various benefits. Through story, art and research this study day will explore aspects of liminality and marginality and the joys, frustrations, opportunities and challenges that being ‘on the edge’ can bring.
Indicative Timetable for the day
10:15 Welcome and Introduction
10:30 Deep Talk 1
11:25 Break
11:40 Interpretating Art
12:45 Lunch
13:45 Reflections from Research
15:10 Break
15:25 Deep Talk 2
15:55 Depart/Cake and conversation
Deep Talk – sessions led by Kate Cornwell
Deep Talk is a creative and imaginative method that nurtures personal and community wellbeing. It uses life-coaching principles and the art of ancient storytelling to help individuals and groups consider their vision, wellbeing, and life purpose. Deep Talk has found success in various settings including workplaces, educational institutions, community groups, mediation, and professional development. These sessions, will give participants the opportunity to experience a full Deep Talk session and collectively explore what it means to work ‘at the edge’ of our various chaplaincy settings.
Interpretating Art – session led by Suzanne Nockels
Art, by its nature has no fixed meaning, is open to interpretation and can take on a new life not originally envisaged by the artist. Art is fluid so it can help us explore our own times of change. This session will involve sitting with a number of paintings and sculptures which broadly have healthcare as theme. They’ll be an opportunity to respond through open-ended questions and hear a little about the life and context of the artist. Together, we will build a fruitful conversation between the artwork, ourselves and between each other. Viewing art and talking around it can be a helpful tool in our own Chaplaincy contexts. At the end there will be the invitation to write or draw a response to something you’ve seen on a postcard (becoming an artist yourself).
Reflections from Research – session led by Tim Dixon
“It’s like you work for the prison, but you don’t!”
Tim will be leading us through a reflection on his doctoral thesis which looked at the pastoral care of remand prisoners and the role of the prison chaplain. One of the main themes explored there was the marginal or ‘liminal’ nature of chaplaincy, how we stand on the boundaries of people’s competing expectations and on the thresholds of being ‘part’ of the organisations we work for. Tim will make links to healthcare chaplaincy and how we work within ‘edge’ environments, with people trapped in limbo-like situations of disorientation sometimes for months or years at a time – what does this do to people and their identity, and what does it do to us? There will be opportunity for group discussion around these themes and what it might look like to live faithfully on the edge of things, and how this might be a benefit to our ministry, rather than a drawback.
If you are a Free Church Healthcare Chaplain, please contact Thandar at thandar.tun@freechurches.org.uk for the discount code.
Photo by PNW Production at pexels.com