gatherings, ceremonies & learning spaces
Wilderness Feast of John the Baptist, June 24th, 2021
I host gatherings and learning spaces for creatives, educators and activists, as a means of nourishing, encouraging and helping them feel less alone.
These events resonate with themes from the Jewish-Christian tradition (beauty & justice, the prophetic imagination etc), but are relevant, welcoming, challenging and (hopefully) inspiring for everyone, whether of faith or not.
The intention is to create hospitable spaces where we are able to be mutually vulnerable, sharing the things that are most meaningful, and learning from those that are different to us.
I sometimes host rituals and ceremonies for people that aren’t religious but want to draw from the Jesus-tradition. Each is uniquely designed for the occasion that is being marked.
I also host somatic story workshops for groups that wouldn’t normally read the bible but want to draw from its wisdom in embodied ways that might resource and support their work and relationships.
I share about these gatherings and spaces here to give more of an idea of who I am and how I move through the world, in case you are considering doing some work with me, or would like me to design a ceremony or event.
The cost for such work will depend on your budget and the kind of work/travel/time it involves.
‘When I think of Vanessa as a host and convenor I think of generosity and possibility. Vanessa is someone who has a vision of how things might be.
She does not perform the role of gatherer as the central figure, but as the glue or perhaps the thread that weaves between us, holding us in place to focus on a theme or a question for just long enough to tilt the world and allow us to see from another perspective.
I’m so grateful to Vanessa for illuminating unseen paths of enquiry through her work. She is a seeker and has the capacity to hold space for complex questions and uncomfortable truths with an open heart’.
Leonora Oppenheim - artist, designer and educator
thirsty feasts
When I lived in East London (2012-19) I hosted regular gatherings for artists, writers, musicians and activists…anyone whose response to the pain of the world was to shut themselves away and create, or who needed to be embraced by creative community.
We would engage with the work of particular theologians and philosophers, using their ideas to reflect on our own work and practice. Not many people outside of church or academy read theological books, yet this is a subject that is able to take absolutely everything in to account.
We allowed Simone Weil, Martin Buber, Walter Brueggemann, Elaine Scarry, Rubem Alves and others to challenge, inspire and provoke us to think and feel more deeply and create more courageously.
Here writer and theologian Brad Jersak is sharing with us his great love Simone Weil’s ideas about ‘affliction and grace’. Musician Heather Hind performs a song from her album Hindsight. And poet Patrick Mackie, also a Simone Weil devotee, reads from his book The Further Adventures of the Lives of the Saints.
Chef Lou Kenney would cater for some of the feasts, letting the work of each writer inspire the menu.
I worked with both Lou and photographer and curator Rodrigo Orrantia to host Babette’s Feast. She gave her time to produce an incredible seven course feast, through which we considered ideas from Isaak Dineson’s wonderful book (and the just as wonderful film)… scarcity and abundance… grace… judgement… beauty… and responded by sharing some of our own work… poems, songs, fresh ideas.
The idea of a Thirsty Feast comes from a bit of prophetic writing, Isaiah 55, where ‘all who are thirsty’ are invited to come and ‘eat what is good’ rather than waste our labour on ‘that which does not satisfy’.
Events that I host involve food, discussion, and opportunities to share the things we are working on.
Since moving to Sussex, I have hosted feasts out in woods and fields, including Wilderness Feasts on the feast day of John the Baptist (24th June) and Land and Earth feasts, where we eat food produced on the land beneath our feet and reflect on the language of the Jewish creation story.
‘I attended a series of events organised by Vanessa. I found them both highly accessible (in that they were not explicitly religious) and deeply nourishing, because they enabled me to connect thinking about creativity to deeper themes of philosophy and faith.
I still reflect on the ideas we discussed during those evenings and can honestly say that I have not experienced anything similar, before or since’.
Joe Bentley, musician and teacher at inner London primary school.
I am not currently hosting any public gatherings, but you are welcome to be in touch if you would like to talk with me about designing or hosting an event for/with you.
ceremonies & rituals
I am neither ordained nor formally trained as a celebrant, but I occasionally get asked to design ceremonies and rituals for people that aren’t ‘religious’, but want to draw from the Jesus-tradition. When it feels right, I’m happy to do so.
‘Vanessa was the magic at the heart of our wedding. From making the space for us to design a ceremony with her that reflected our truest selves, to supporting us along our journey through thick and thin to the wedding day, to writing her own exquisite words and marrying us with such energy and grace. Many people said afterwards that they felt like true magic had been summoned in the air, and it was the most extraordinary ceremony they’d ever experienced’ - Louisa
‘Vanessa painstakingly designed our ceremony with us - it felt like she looked in to our souls and drew out the essence of what we were, together and individually. She made everyone there feel profoundly included and welcome, and us profoundly seen and lifted up. She captured a beautiful balance between great humour, spiritual power, originality and grace; a true master of ceremonies, and a true celebrant’ - Pete
‘Vanessa’s stewardship of the ceremony was warm, charming and masterful. It felt profound without ever being ponderous…spiritual without ever being naff. Brilliantly done!’ - Jules
‘Vanessa was amazing. She held everyone with her words and captured the couple perfectly. There was nothing left to say afterwards’ - Seb
prayer spaces - stillness@7
Stillness@7 was a silent prayer space that I started at the beginning of the first UK lockdown in 2020.
I had the sense we would need to learn to sing in the dark, and so wanted to invite people, whether they professed faith or not, to gather together with others and pray (or meditate) in silence. We began to meet online every weekday evening for 7 minutes at 7pm (UK time) for the duration of lockdown. Hence Stillness@7.
One of us would welcome people and say ‘let’s be still’, followed by 1 minute silence; ‘let’s give thanks’, 2 minute silence; ‘let’s ask for help’, 2 minute silence'; ‘let’s hope for transformation’, a final 2 minute silence, and then ‘Amen’. People would then unmute and say ‘amen’, if they wanted to. We would greet each other and depart.
It was simple and replicable and we met together for 3 years. You would be welcome to use or adapt this model for your own groups.
somatic story workshops
Stories shape our lives. The bible is a book of stories that most don’t have an inclination to read. I host (in-person) workshops with groups that wouldn’t normally read the bible, but want to allow the embodied wisdom and insights of these ancient stories to resource and shape their work in the world.
We slowly read and enact (no acting skills required) the story together, drawing primarily on the wisdom of our own bodies (and the collective body), as we allow ourselves to voice our immediate felt responses. We witness the questions and concerns, meanings and insights, that emerge in the room and respond with smaller focussed conversations which allow us to dwell on those experiences.
“Nowadays, deeper listening, embodied participation and sometimes shocking interaction with others in living stories and narrative can bring hilariously fresh insight and restorative hope to old systems of thought. Vanessa is seriously good at facilitating such happy discoveries, in well-held, but free and freeing encounters.”
Sue Mitchell, coach, art of hosting practitioner and poverty truth commissions
These workshops are a way for groups to deepen in relationship to one another, and to grow more self-aware and envisioned in their work together. They are also an opportunity for each person’s understanding of ‘spirituality’ to be welcomed in to the room.
I draw on my experience as a spiritual director, host and practical theologian to design workshops uniquely for (and in collaboration with) each group. Where appropriate I draw in other spiritual directors and bible practitioners to host with me. Please be in touch for more information.
learning spaces & happenings
I also love to collaborate with others to create larger, or longer term, learning spaces and gatherings.
Every January, a group of us host an event (using Art of Hosting methodologies) for around 160 people, of all ages and backgrounds, who gather for the weekend around a particular theme. Last year, 2023, we considered together Rebecca Solnit’s idea of ‘Hope as an Axe’. This year, 2024, we invited musicians and artists to lead us in to ‘Song & Resistance’. As with the smaller gatherings, the theme is drawn from concerns within the Jewish-Christian tradition, but those that gather are people of doubt, faith and no faith. People offer workshops, reflective walks, conversations, gigs and more as a means of co-curating the time together. The intention is to both nourish and provoke, in the hope that we might grow a little more courageous in our everyday lives.
Between 2014-18, I co-founded and directed a small, nomadic practical theology school, working with my friends Bob and Gracie Ekblad to create learning spaces for practitioners doing beautiful work with those at the margins of society. Our desire was to gather folk from different parts of the church to eat and reflect and learn together, sharing best practice and choosing to humble ourselves and learn from one another even when we disagreed. When people with that calibre of experience gathered together to learn and share, it always felt like one huge feast. I saw that food and growing friendships can indeed bridge ideological divides. And it confirmed for me that if we put up tents and temporary tables in the liminal spaces between things, good things really can happen amongst people of difference.
