We are Partners in Action with the Christian eco-charity A Rocha UK. A Rocha are creating a community of ordinary Christians they are calling ‘Wild Christian’ which explores ‘the connections between our Christian faith, the natural environment and how we live.’ You can find out more via this link https://arocha.org.uk/wildchristian/.
You are encouraged by A Rocha to get attentively and creatively involved, in themes like nature and climate, nature and the UK, nature and the global, nature and the local, nature and celebration. You can explore the connections between yourself and the wild through art, poetry, action and so many other ways. We can also immerse ourselves in the wild.
Here at Scargill Movement on community we have an opportunity to immerse ourselves in the local, in the wild Yorkshire Dales around us. Whether it is wild swimming in the river Wharfe, rock climbing Kilnsey Crag, paragliding with views of Scargill House, cycling, fell running, walking the Dales, braving the steppingstones, or toasting marshmallows over a fire pit – there is so much for the adventurous soul!
And then there is the wildlife. You might catch a slug bungee jumping! Or help identify spittle bugs, Bird-cherry Ermine moths all wrapped up in silken webs on bird cherry trees, or Speckled Yellow, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Peacock, and Speckled Wood butterflies. You will have deer outside your front door in the hay meadow, barn owls and tawny owls haunting your dreams with their calls and silent flight.
We have the huge privilege of enabling others as guests and friends, young and old experience something of the ‘wild Christian.’ We might be maintaining the 90 acres of unspoilt creation on the estate team, or feeding the community, guests and friends after adventure, or creating beautiful and comfortable rooms for them to sleep…we might be hosting, and welcoming, and praying, and leading our retreats and Quiet Days, or helping with our online ministry – together creating a space of hospitiality and thin place to experience God’s presence and generosity.
Whether we are cultivating holy noticing of an otter or kingfisher on the river Wharfe or possible moments of meeting with a guest, friend, or God – we do learn to be attentive to the little details of the wild around us, we learn something of the creative Word God has placed in each member of community, as well as the joy of sharing in the stories of our guests and friends. This is an apprenticeship in discipleship with community and kingdom at the heart of it.
If your heart is strangely warmed reading this, then perhaps God is calling you to experience the adventure of community, to immerse yourself in an Acts 2 moment, being together and sharing a common life. That’s pretty wild and adventurous! Here is a link to explore this: https://old.scargillmovement.org/join-community/.
A working party from A Rocha UK were with us here at Scargill Monday 24th May to Friday 28th May. They were leading a bioblitz, an intense period of biological surveying, especially focusing on plant and bird life on our 90-acre estate. They were also working with the Estate team at Scargill in building an accessible wildlife pond and sensory garden, with pathway, seating area, stumpery (see later), and hazel arch entrance.
Here at Scargill we love caring for God’s creation and we are part of A Rocha’s Partner in Action conservation network. Our lead with A Rocha is community member Chloe Leigh. We asked Chloe some questions about the bioblitz and pond project.
Chloe, how was it working with A Rocha? Now be honest!
‘Oh, it was brilliant! They’re such a lovely and dedicated group to work with. Andy led the bioblitz group in surveying the estate, and Regina led the group working on the pond area. Every meal and break time we would sit and compare notes on how we were getting on, and it was lovely to hear everyone’s achievements and experiences of the day. Everyone had a very positive working attitude and we achieved so much in just a short length of time! I really hope we can work together again in the future.’
Can you give us one exciting finding from the bioblitz?
‘Well, we’re yet to find out the survey results, but I did hear that we have several rare species onsite. They also set up a wildlife camera at the top of the estate, so it will be fascinating to see what species they managed to capture on camera.’
How pleased were you with how far you got with the wildlife pond?
‘Very pleased! We managed to dig the pond, shape it, make a raised seating area, dig, and line the paths, build a stumpery (a rockery made from tree stumps), build a bench and extend the dry-stone wall – all in just three days! It was very impressive how everyone was so dedicated and worked so hard to complete their tasks, and I appreciate the working friends coming to offer their support as well.’
What needs to happen next?
‘Next we actually need to fill the pond! However, before we do that we need to put up natural fencing (for health and safety reasons) and put the liner in. We also need to weave the arch, make a path through the woodland and build an insect hotel! We’ve come such a long way from just a piece of paper with a sketched drawing on and an empty plot of land– we’ve got a wildlife garden well under way! I can’t wait for more guests to come and sit on our benches to admire the beautiful view down the valley, and to praise God’s wonderful creation.’
A new opportunity for guests is to visit our new Lament sculpture in the walled garden commissioned by Scargill from former community member and sculptor Lizzy Taylor. We asked her a few questions about being on community and the genesis of the sculpture.
Tell us about living on community?
‘Living on community is a special experience that I don’t think you can fully understand unless you’ve experienced it yourself. It was a time for me to grow as a person and learn to be comfortable and have confidence with my decisions…or lack of decisions in life and faith. Being surrounded by such accepting, lovely people who give you the freedom to explore and ask questions and love you for who you are whilst challenging you to do the same for others, loving and accepting others for who they are.
The biggest challenge for me wasn’t living in community itself, but actually working and welcoming guests and letting them share a snippet of community life-feeling safe in community makes you vulnerable to people coming and going as guests. But of course, it comes hand in hand and community life wouldn’t happen like it does without the guests!’
How did you get interested in sculpture?
‘I have always been creative. Since I was very young, I was interested in woodwork and art which led me to do sculpture and then furniture design and craft. Working in 3D comes naturally to me and I’m able to visualise things. Sculpture enables me to be more experimental and work without constraints.’
You’ve done some other work for Scargill?
‘I have changed many of the beds and cleaned a lot of toilets in my time at Scargill! I also had fun carving an owl from a tree that had fallen which you can find on the estate walk. Suz, a previous community member on the Estate team asked me to do it!’
Tell us about this new commission for Scargill ‘Lament’?
‘I was approached to design a lament prayer station and it was suggested to have a small, portable one that could be used in the chapel and provide a safe place for someone to engage with.
When thinking more about the brief, I felt that maybe the Chapel wasn’t the best place for this as personally I don’t find it easy to express difficult emotions in Church spaces. For me, being outside in nature is where I feel closer to God, and it’s somewhere I feel the freedom to feel whatever I feel – positive or negative emotions. The walled garden seemed the perfect safe space for this to be.
The small, portable prayer station soon didn’t seem appropriate for what we were trying to achieve. When faced with grief and sorrow, it doesn’t feel small, and I wanted the sculpture to recognise that. It can feel like you hit a wall…. something that’s impossible to see beyond, something overpowering and bigger than you. The lament sculpture came into sight and it needed to be big!
The following Psalms were mentioned in an early meeting about the idea:
Psalm 22 “My God my God why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 56 “You have stored up my tears in your bottle and counted each one of them” Psalm 88 “Darkness is my only friend.”
These have inspired the different aspects that have been incorporated within the sculpture. The large sculpture represents the wall you can feel faced with and the darkness is shown in the scorched surface. It provides a safe place to question and entrust your laments within the holes and cracks of the wall, and the water is to recognise peoples tears and cry over their questions and thoughts.
I hope people find the space that has been created helpful, and although the vision for it came before the pandemic, perhaps the timing of it is especially needed after the challenging year and months everyone has faced.’
YouTube video
If you play this, Google may set cookies and process data according to their privacy policy. You can withdraw this consent later by deleting cookies.
What would be your dream as a sculptor?
‘I would love to work full time as an artist/craftswoman. I just love to make beautiful things for others to enjoy.’ We believe Lizzy’s sculpture is a prophetic and timely piece of art that will resonate with many of our friends. We also believe it will help us express both our sorrow and our joy, our tears and our laughter as we meet God in the thin place that is the walled garden.
Dear Scargillians
We do hope you are enjoying good weather, as we are, at this time. We always seem to be talking about the weather here at Scargill.
We have a few things to share with you:
We hope that you will join us for our online Evening Prayer Service which has now moved to Wednesdays (the first on 9th June) – it will be good to have you with us.
We are so glad that we have been able to receive our first residential guests but our online presence will continue. You are very welcome to join us for a Quiet Day on Saturday 26th June. There will also be some online events in July, and we will send you details in the next mailing.
We are still very much looking for new Community members, so if you know someone who may be looking for a gap year, or you know someone who may be feeling called to community, please do get in touch with us (di@scargillmovement.org).
I know that many of you have enjoyed these mailings with Di’s reflections. They will continue but will now become monthly.
Di and I have just enjoyed a week off here at Scargill where we have been welcoming some of our family to stay for the first time for over a year. Di’s reflection speaks of the joy of re-connecting with grandchildren. Enjoy!
Diane writes:
Some of you may remember reading Shirley Hughes books. My favourite one for a long time has been Lucy & Tom’s Christmas which has now become a firm family favourite. It finishes with the first illustration below and these words ‘Christmas can be quite tiring as Tom gets very excited about his presents and rather cross. So he and grandpa go for a walk together in the snow, just the two of them. The sun is very big and red.’
‘Lucy and Tom’s Christmas’ by Shirley Hughes.
In other books, Alfie and Grandma are very special friends, and together they have lots of adventures! Whether it’s saving the day and finding a lost pet, or exploring indoors and out, Alfie loves being with his grandma. In the short story A Journey to the North Pole, ‘after being stuck indoors all morning relations between Alfie and his sister Annie Rose are becoming fraught so Grandma suggests they all put their waterproofs on and go for a walk in the rain’. (second illustration). Good old grandma!
‘Journey to the North Pole’ by Shirley Hughes
‘One thing we all have in common is family. Whether large or small, near or far, dear or distant, our families and familial relationships influence who we are. Siblings and cousins are often our first friends; parents and grandparents are frequently the first people we love’. A quote I read looking up a possible etching by John Costigan at the Whitney Museum of America.
And families has been the focus of our recent week’s holiday with the children and grandchildren visiting – one set Friday night to Wednesday, the second from Wednesday to Sunday – with grandchildren aged from 9 weeks to 8years!!!!!!!!!!! During the week we stayed local, the weather has been kind and generous, the sun remaining remarkably warm for most of the week – miracles still happen! And wherever we went there were grandparents like ourselves basking in the company of their children and grandchildren. Monday though, will see us back with community a little tired, well a lot really, but also very content, with a renewed sense of purpose and place.
In Proverbs 17:6 we read: ‘Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.’
Not sure what our children would say! BUT I can definitely say that to see one’s children’s children born into this world and have an opportunity to interact with them, to have fun with them, to laugh and listen is a pure joy which many of us have missed over the past year. It has been helpful using Zoom, WhatsApp and messenger as well as visiting castles!!! Castles have been amazing places to meet halfway for a few hours whenever lockdown has been lifted, keeping those vital links that have made this week so special.
I also know that in families, all is not necessarily well, that fractions and frictions can and do arise and that unlike Shirley Hughes stories, endings are not always happy. So let us this weekend rejoice and be thankful for the good times and pray for God’s presence in the more difficult and challenging times.
