How did it all begin?

On May 1st 2006 a Body, Mind and Spirit Fair was held at Coventry Cathedral. It was a Fair with a difference. Everyone who arranged a stall or an installation was a committed Christian who believed that the Spirit of Life (the name of the fair) was to be experienced through dance, meditation, holistic therapies, poetry etc, etc. The day was a huge success with over 60 stalls and about 2,000 people attending (In 2007 the number attending doubled).

At the end of the day, several people asked me if I would help them put on similar but smaller-scale events in local village or church halls. I began to think about it and suggested Body and Soul as a title. I am a trained reflexologist and thought I could use the pun on sole and soul.
But, then the story began to develop. I was on sabbatical in my role of Methodist minister and so had more free time than normal. I felt God was telling me that I had to do as the first followers of Jesus had done and simply wait in prayer.

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city. When they arrived they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter James, John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers. Acts 1:12-14
All I knew was that I was going to be sent somewhere for Pentecost Sunday, somewhere special to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to those first disciples. Someone had told me once that Mary the mother of Jesus is usually depicted as being at the centre of the apostles on that day because she was going to be their role model. She had already received the Holy Spirit when the archangel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus (Luke 1:35). From then on she had lived a Spirit led life, constantly saying to God "Lord let it be unto me according to your will. And I don’t need to know the details". That is what all the other disciples were now going to learn to do when the Spirit came to them. In a very real sense Mary acted as a motherly mentor to them and birthed the church into being.

Yet I felt that the mothering image was only going to be part of what God was going to tell me. I sensed that it was going to be more to do with the marriage imagery of the Bible, of the new covenant that God makes with his people through the Spirit. But what did I know? I was being told just to wait, not to organise anything, not to try and work out what was happening. Just wait. "Lord let it be unto me according to your will. And I don't need to know the details".
So from Ascension Day onwards that's what I did. The first clue came on the following Tuesday night when I simply dreamed the words Jesus lover of my soul', the opening line of a hymn by Charles Wesley. I knew where he had written it. It was at a place called Garth in mid-Wales where he had been wooing his future wife, Sarah Gwynne. Eventually they married at Garth parish church on April 8th 1749.

That was the marriage imagery I was expecting — but even more significantly, I knew that the next village to Garth is called Beulah which is a Biblical place name and literally means 'For Your Land Is Married' (Isaiah 62: 4)

You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow. You will be a crown of splendour in the Lord's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will the call you Deserted or your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, My Delight is in Her and your land will be called Beulah, Married. For the lord will take delight in you and your land will be married.

I tried to find accommodation in Beulah but it was all booked up. However, one of the men I spoke to handed me on to a hotel nearby at Llantrwyd Wells. It was to there that I travelled on June 2nd, the day before Pentecost. The first thing I did was to find Garth chapel (it's also known as Llanlleonfel parish church) in order to establish the time of the Pentecost service. There was to be no service there or anywhere else nearby because all the churches were going to join together for a confirmation service at Llangammarch Wells.

I must admit to being a bit disappointed. I had set my heart on celebrating Pentecost at the Wesley marriage church but it was not to be. So I went to the hotel in Llantrwyd Wells. It overlooked the most magnificent statue of a red kite bird of prey. There was something so appropriate about that because, in the past, God had spoken to me of the work of the Holy Spirit not just as the gentleness of the dove but as the wild, untameable, immensely beautiful red kite.

During the night I dreamed. It was the picture of the Biblical chakra chart which I had designed for the Spirit of Life event at the Cathedral. Chakras are key energy points in the body. The complete meaning of that Biblical chakra chart is found in the Alternatives section of this site. All that is it is necessary to know for this story is the idea of energy coiled up like a serpent is an important part of chakras and I had marked each point with a Celtic cross. In the dream as well as seeing the chart I heard the words A NEW OPENING FOR THE CHURCH. Or it could have been AN OPENING FOR THE NEW CHURCH.

When we got to Llangammarch Wells (a place I had never heard of before) I read the guide book of the church and there found two very important facts. One of the curates of the parish had been William Williams (of Pantecelyn) who is most famous as the author of the hymn Guide Me 0 thou Great Jehovah. While he was serving in that parish, he had an experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit. It was a bit too much for the very traditional Anglican of his church to cope with and so he left paid ministry and made his living by selling tea. The majority of his time was spent as a Methodist itinerant preacher. In order to teach and nurture followers in the faith, he set up small class meetings which were characteristic of Methodism and gave them a Welsh name, seidai, which translates as Soul Clinics.

I fell in love with the name immediately. It is slicker, more memorable and more distinctive than Body and Soul. And what seemed really important on that Pentecost Sunday was that it had already played a part in the story of the people of faith being led by the Holy Spirit. Of course, I would use the name differently from how William Williams had used it but the fact that the same name could be used for such different cultural contexts shows how the Spirit is ever the same and ever new.

But the most amazing discovery was still to come. The guide book pointed out the carving above the door of the church (I had walked under it without noticing it!) No one knows whether it is an ancient pagan carving or a Christian one which had been made for the medieval church which had once been in the village. All that is certain is that it was moved to its present position when the new church was open in 1917. It is highly unusual, showing a spiral like a coiled serpent and a Celtic cross. Just like my Biblical chakra chart which had been declared to be an Opening for the New Church.

There cannot be another carving in a church like it anywhere in the country and I had been led to it by waiting on the Spirit.

It was a fantastic ending but I had learned as much in the travelling.
Now I had the name to use. But I also vowed that I would always try to do what I had learned to do with this experience and not arrange anything without being sure that this was what God was saying, no matter how long it took.

 

 

 

So it was that the first big event which came under the heading of Soul Clinics was the Heartstone Festival in March 2008. That story is told in the Opening up the Heart of England part of the site. But my understanding of Soul Clinics was also to change that day when Chris came to see me on my chakra stall

Chris’s Story

My journey to find meaning in my life, and to try and understand some of the many things that have happened to me as both child and adult, has been going on all my life. As a small toddler, the 'man' that stood at the bottom of my bed never frightened me. He was always gentle, always kind but he ever spoke. I learned very early in life not to mention him because no-one else could see him. He guides me even when I denied him. I have often felt soulless with no direction or path to follow and my physical health as well as my mental and emotional health began to suffer. Then I had a dream of Jesus telling me that I ought to be careful about "what I got into". I was so struck by the fact that he didn't tell me off and was not at all judgemental. He was almost casual about it but he did warn me to be careful.

I have always worked for the health service professionally, after that dream, I had a conversation with some colleagues at work about how there are clinics for most ailments and support groups for most things but there are no clinics for the soul. The idea never left me and I looked at various ways of doing this but none seemed right. Yet I kept having a real sense that soul clinics were going to happen.

At the beginning of this year (2008) I had a dream. I was in a glass coffin within an Egyptian mummy who I knew to be the goddess Isis. She gave me a key. In the corner of the room was a door and the key opened it. It was very dark. A man, whose face I knew but I couldn't name, was running towards me. I knew that I would have trouble keeping up with him and so I jumped on his back and he carried me.

A couple of days later I was shopping and saw a necklace with the words of Footprints written on it. "It was then that I carried you". I realised that the man I had seen was Christ.

Several weeks later I was in the local Co-op supermarket and found leaflets advertising that there was going to be a Soul Clinic in Atherstone. To say that I was intrigued was an understatement. I went along and met Pauline Warner and others who are interested in healing the soul.

I have felt that all this has happened to get me personally to step back onto a path I left long ago. I feel that my personal journey has started again.

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